The Conference Board's U.S. employment trends index edged down 0.7% in April to a reading of 89.5. It's down 22% year-over-year.

"The outlook for employment is much less negative than in prior months, but still it is not likely that employment growth will resume before the final quarter of the year," said Gad Levanon, senior economist at The Conference Board. "In April, the employment trends index recorded its smallest decline since June 2008, and three of its eight components actually showed an improvement."

The employment trends index aggregates eight labor market indicators into a composite index.