This does not bode well. Summer is traditionally bad for hiring, so there probably aren't gong to be any gains in the next few months. Minimal hiring now indicates a slow summer sales/spending season is expected which will then effect the fall months and so on and on.

From Pinnacle:

April and May
At the dawn of spring, many industries are anticipating an increase in business. Landscaping and hospitality, for instance, are building momentum and need to ramp up their workforces quickly.

From Monster dot com:

For those whose livelihood depends substantially on fair weather, spring is when hiring peaks. In the construction industry, hiring in April, May and June proceeds at double the pace of December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS).

Tourism and hospitality hiring is also very strong in the spring. And businesses looking to hire professional workers before fall often do so now, before key decision makers start rotating out for summer vacation.

So we are probably also looking for a slow down in housing starts which IIRC is a positive indicator (when up) for the economy.

so I long ago disappeared from their statistics.

Two years into the recession I turned 50, and the job possibilities seemed to disappear. I HAVE been hired twice for full-time positions since 2008, but both companies turned out to be pretty dishonest and/or disgusting. One job was hourly and the company gave me fewer hours than were promised when they offered the job, and the other company let me go on day 28 of the 30 day probationary period -- even though I was the top producer in my department. Some types of discrimination remain perfectly legal in many states. Needless to say I'll never try to live in Utah again.

Neither job paid well or had many benefits, but that seems to be the norm now.

but sadly a common story. My husband and I arrived early to this nasty state of employment. We lived in San Fransisco in the 90's we both had skilled corporate techie jobs and were 'working poor' in a city that was impossible to live in on our combined wages. We went into business for ourselves when my husband in his late 30's was told by the cooperate CEO he was not 'eligible' to move up to a managerial level. No reason given.

He was in fact managing the statistical spec writing SF branch as the manager of this division was never at work being a strip bar addict with no knowledge of the services the company provided. So we poached the clients who knew where the work they appreciated was coming from and started our own business to business service company. Were still hanging in there but it's been a hard row to hoe as contractor/vendors are subjected to the ebb and flow of this insane economy. We have cash flow problems and have to be constantly hustling marketing for new clients. We moved to Portland Oregon and in 2008 lost half our income because our work dried up in the crash.

Were okay, I guess now but have never really recovered as this 'recovery' is not real. What a world. thank god I'm not in Utah and thank god our BtB is electronic and not limited to one region or culture. I hope you find a solution perhaps you should look outside the corporate beaten path. I have no idea what you do but sometimes it's better to strike out on your own and bootstrap your skills outside the offices of the corporate beast's marketplace.