The Conference Board's U.S. employment trends index rose 0.2% in May to a reading of 89.9 from April's revised reading. The index is still down 20% from a year ago.

"While it is too early to say that the [employment trends index] has bottomed, the moderation of the last two months is certainly a sign that the decline in job losses is real and signals that the worst is over," said Gad Levanon, senior economist at The Conference Board. "However, as the economic recovery over the coming months is likely to be very slow, we still expect the unemployment rate to continue to increase to double digits by the end of this year and into 2010."

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