Diminishing Returns?

I saw today's news as a good sign. I hope. It seems that the number of people becoming unemployed is not only slowing down, but hopefully turning around. And at an 8.9 percent jobless rate, we could be doing worse.

But what happens when the system has shed itself of all employees? Theoretically, there would be no new jobless claims then either. Looking at jobless claims numbers only tells us when we are running out of employees to layoff. It doesn't tell us when we're ready to turn around. If the system is slowing down in its shedding of unneeded human capital, is it prolonging the difficult healing? In other words, are slowing down the process of ripping the bandaid off because it hurts, but only prolonging the sting? Or, do we need to rip it all of at once, scream a bit, then get on with healing.

I don't know anything. I'm just thinking out loud. But as a regular working class person, who is friends with other regular working class people, I worry that the system is not going to be calling us back to work anytime soon. I hope I am wrong.

If you know more about this kind of stuff than I do, let me know.