"Gains" would be more jobs in a given month than there were the month before. At this point, what we're probably looking at is businesses running out of people to easily lay off. The bucket is getting empty, and the hole at the bottom isn't pouring water out as fast.

I went to this BLS chart site, and checked off all the different employment categories, ticking the "graph" option on the results. I don't have enough information on the categories to draw hard conclusions, but the results are interesting. Play with the time span.

Go here and check "discouraged workers," and look at the numbers and graph line for that. The numbers only go back as far as 1994, but the current trend is shocking.

(picture no. 200 from the old board's gallery, not restored)