In a sign of positive recovery, the job losses figure in the US recorded a sharp decline on May 2009, perhaps signaling the beginning of the end of recession. The bad news – the unemployment rate is still at the county’s highest in almost 3 decades.

As revealed by the US Labour Department, more than 345,000 people lost their job last month. While the number seems to be overwhelming to say the least, it is the smallest retrenchment figure recorded since September 2008.

In April, the figure was 504,000.

Hopes for a full economic recovery is now alive and kicking even though the country still have some way to go to reduce its unemployment rate, which now stands at 9.4%.

The current US recession, which has gone for more than 15 months, is the longest faced by the citizens since the Great Depression and has to date swept away more than 6 million jobs, as well as burying a significant number of well known corporations. On average, more than half a million people lost their jobs since the start of the recession.

Lehman Brothers, once a mighty investment adviser, has succumbed to the crisis and made its name in the history book in of the largest bankruptcies in the US.