The CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index retreated slightly to 89.0 in May, after three months of improvement. The Index, which measures managerial hiring activity online, had risen from 70.8 in January to 92.3 in April.

"Economic turmoil in Europe, Wall Street and the Gulf appears to have also impacted managerial hiring at companies across the U.S.," says Jay Martin, COO, JobSerf. "Unfortunately, although May is typically a strong hiring month, the current uncertainty is creating additional pain for the unemployed."

"Even though hiring levels this month are more than 30 points above May 2009 (89 vs. 56.6), we still need to see a significant improvement in managerial hiring before we will see a reduction in the overall unemployment rate," says Tony Lee, publisher, CareerCast.com.

On a positive note, the three strongest cities – Washington D.C. (up 10 to 172), Boston (up 8 to 131) and San Francisco (up 8 to 106) – had the greatest improvements in per capita managerial hiring. This is the first time three cities have been over the 100 benchmark.

The Midwest continues to suffer, with Indianapolis (down 4 to 47), St. Louis (down 3 to 42) and Cincinnati (down 3 to 40). Declines in the South are most notably reflected in Nashville's hiring activity which dropped 3 points to 50.

Detroit, whose hiring activity rose 11% to 30 and Riverside up 12% to 19, topped the list of highest percentage improvements in per capita hiring although they are at the bottom of the rankings.

Los Angeles had a small improvement (up 2 to 41) bringing it up three places in the rankings against other cities, which had decreases.