Unemployment numbers are out: payrolls dropped by just 247,000 and the jobless rate falls to 9.4 percent. That just might be good news. Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, joins us with his take on the numbers and what they mean for economic recovery.

Unemployment numbers are due out this morning and economic analyst Lakshman Achuthan, Managing Director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, joins us with his predictions. In April, Lakshman predicted that we’d be coming out of the recession this summer. We wanted to road test some of your ideas, so The Takeaway's Femi Oke went looking in unusual places for indications on how the economy is doing. First stop: the ASPCA in New York City, where the rates of pet adoptions tend to follow people's economic well-being. Could the dogs here give us a peek at which direction the economy is going?

Next stop: Wall Street, but not to visit the banks. Instead, Femi spoke with cobbler Minas Polychronakis, who for over 30 years has been repairing shoes for rich and poor alike.

Detroit has been hard hit in this recession. As we continue to look at economic indicators, Charlie LeDuff, reporter with the Detroit News, and Dr. Carl Schmidt, the Wayne County medical examiner, join us to tell of a sad side effect of the weak economy: families unable to afford funerals.

While working fathers are content with their job-life balance, moms are increasingly angry as they try to balance being great employees and great parents. Who are they mad at? The dads. Joining The Takeaway to discuss the continuing inequality of parenting are Lisa Belkin, author of the Motherlode blog for The New York Times, and Jeremy Adam Smith, author of The Daddy Shift: How Stay-at-Home Dads, Breadwinning Moms, and Shared ParentingAreTransforming the American Family.

The GDP shrank one percent in the second quarter. To tell us what that means for the economy and jobs, The Takeaway is joined by Dan Gross, columnist for Newsweek and Slate.com.

The Takeaway looks at where the economy is now, and where it's headed. We're talking to Lakshman Achuthan, the Managing Director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute. He talks about the leading indicators in economic recovery including jobless claims, the stock market and corporate profit.

Economists offer an academic view of the economy—they know the numbers, the rates, and the interest. But if you want to know the reality behind those numbers and find out what's happening on the ground, there's only one view: the trucker's view. Cliff Hagedon owns Fort Gratiot Express trucking; he carries freight across the nation. The more people buy, the busier he is. He joins The Takeaway from the road on his way to Texarkana.

The car industry is starting to release its second quarter profit reports. The Ford Motor Company is posting a surprise $2.8 billion profit, but it continues to have operating losses. Since its two biggest competitors, GM and Chrysler, have just emerged from bankruptcy, the report is definitely creating a mixed picture of the company's health. Globally, Hyundai has managed to post a huge profit, while luxury car brand Porsche has big changes in the works. For more we turn to Nick Bunkley, The New York Times auto industry reporter, and Russell Padmore, a BBC business correspondent.

For this Monday's agenda segment, we talk about the Senate Finance Committee's bipartisan plan and President Obama's health care reform. The Takeaway also talks about Hillary Clinton's trip to India, the Taliban video of the captured U.S. soldier and how some banks are making big money again. The Takeway is joined by Marcus Mabry, International Business Editor for The New York Times and Jill McGivering, Asia Editor for the BBC.

This morning, JP Morgan Chase posted a quarterly profit of $2.7 billion. That's a 36 percent jump from a year ago. It comes just two days after Goldman Sachs announced a quarterly profit of over $3 billion. As the two banks weather a harsh economic climate, they have managed to pay back the huge government loans they took last year and proceed to earn record profits. Joining us to discuss Chase's earnings is Eric Dash, banking reporter for The New York Times.

Reports are trickling out that say the economy is on a slow upswing. But is it really? The Takeaway talks to two small business owners. Jack Bernstein, who owns a corporate catering business and retail sandwich shop owner in Miami, says that business is down. Ed Snively, a real estate broker in El Centro, California, says that business is way up from last year.

Yesterday, Goldman Sachs made headlines with their record quarterly earnings, taking in $3.44 billion in just four months. That may be a sign of a strenthening economy. And yet unemployment has continued rising: nationally 9.5 percent, the highest rate in 26 years. Which of those two numbers tells us where the economy is headed, and which just tells us where its been? Here to help us figure that out is Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI), a company that forecasts recessions and recoveries.

New figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce show that in May, Americans saved more of their income than they have since 1993. But the only way to get a floundering economy to pick up is for people to spend their money rather than hold onto it. Wall Street Journal Reporter Kelly Evans talks to The Takeaway about this paradox of thrift.

Economic indicators show that the economy will see an upturn in the coming months. But Justin Fox, Editor-at-Large for TIME magazine, isn't too excited about the numbers. He joins The Takeaway to explain why. He is the author of the recently published The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street.

For more, read Justin Fox's article, A Fun-Free Recovery, in TIME Magazine.

The Commerce Department says construction of new homes and apartments fell 12.8 percent last month -- the lowest pace in a half-century. Earlier reports had expected the government to announce a small increase in housing starts. To guide us through the numbers, The Takeaway is joined by Nicolas Retsinas, Director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and former Assistant Secretary of Housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He has an eye on how housing starts fit into the larger picture of big economic indicators. Also joining the conversation is Mori Hosseini, a homebuilder and CEO of ICI Homes, who sees the housing market first-hand.

In yet another indicator of an economic upswing, the price of oil has risen to just over $58 a barrel. That's a 70% gain from its lows of about $34 in February. For more we turn to Barbara Shook, the Houston Bureau Chief of the Energy Intelligence Group. She's covered the oil industry for nearly three decades and can explain what this uptick means. Is it good news, or will it slow the recovery?

The Lego market remains largely unaffected by the rise in oil prices.