U.S. retailers posted better- than-expected monthly sales results for a second straight month in April, giving fresh evidence that consumer spending is warming up with the spring weather.

Nearly two-thirds of the retailers that reported April sales at stores open at least a year topped Wall Street estimates and a handful said their first-quarter results, which start landing next week, will be better than expected.

(Read the good news in Reuters)

Everyone knows the grim news — unemployment in the United States has jumped to 8.5 percent, a 25-year high. Since November, the nation has lost more than three million jobs.

But not everyone knows the brighter side to the equation: deep in the maw of the deepest recession since the Great Depression, millions are still being hired.

So, while 4.8 million workers were laid off or chose to leave their jobs in February, employers across the country hired 4.3 million workers that month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

(Continue reading New York Times article via Yahoo Finance)