The economy's decline has slowed in recent weeks, with new evidence about the job market yesterday showing that the nation is no longer in the extraordinary economic downdraft of the winter.

The April employment report, while dismal by conventional measures, is the strongest evidence yet that the recession is moderating; employers cut 539,000 jobs, the fewest since October. That, combined with other signs of economic progress lately, suggests that the chances of a Great Depression-style economic catastrophe have become more remote than they seemed just two months ago, and that forecasts that a turnaround will begin later in the year have a greater chance of coming true.