Today jobs data from BLS showed a large increase in the unemployment rate from 8.9% to 9.4% in May. However, as the media is reporting there is good news in the data. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Nonfarm payrolls slid 345,000 in May, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday, well below the 525,000 decline economists in a Dow Jones Newswires survey had expected." The New York Times noted that "Economists said the figures showed the government's efforts to prop up the economy were beginning to have an effect."
I'm not sure that the absence of horrible news is really good news. But, I do see one of those famous (infamous?) "green shoots" in the data on involuntary underemployed (part time for economic reasons). That number has been relatively stable for the past three months at around 9 million underemployed. Not great news, but possibly an indicator of a bottom.
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