There may be green shoots out there after all.

Wall Street got the clearest sign yet yesterday that the worst of the Great Recession might be over as the Labor Department reported that unemployment fell one-tenth of a percent to 9.4 percent in July.

The better-than-expected jobs data revealed that the US lost 247,000 jobs last month — far less than the 320,000 that many analysts were bracing for. It marked the first time in 15 months that the unemployment rate has fallen from one month to the next.

Many greeted the jobs data as evidence that the overall economic slowdown may be at, or near, a bottom, and raised fresh questions about some analysts’ dour predictions that unemployment could top 10 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average surged as much as 170 points on the news, though it ended the day up 113.81 points, or 1.2 percent, to 9,370.07 — another 2009 high.

Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index hit a 10-month high, gaining 13.40 to close at 1,010.48. The Nasdaq posted a 27.09-point gain, or 1.4 percent, to wrap up at 2,000.25.

Friday’s employment report helped all the major indexes post robust gains for the week. The Dow was up 2.2 percent, the S&P 500 rose 2.3 percent and the Nasdaq notched a 1.1 percent gain.

“Investors are looking for confirmation that the bottom (of the recession) is close, and employment is a big piece of it,” Fred Dickson, market strategist at D.A. Davidson, said.

However, the positive news doesn’t mean that unemployment can’t reach the troubling 10 percent milestone. Some critics of the jobless data note that the rate improved because some people have given up searching for a new job and, as a result, the workforce shrank.

Nevertheless, the market was willing to latch onto the positive news and send stocks surging across the board.

The financial and media sectors were the biggest winners for the day.

Fallen insurer American International Group saw its shares skyrocket 20 percent yesterday after it reported a surprise second-quarter profit. Other financials were also up significantly, with JPMorgan Chase and American Express each up 4 percent.

Morgan Stanley, which late yesterday reported that its number of $100 million trading days fell to 22 in the second quarter, compared with 24 in the first quarter, saw its shares rise slightly more than 2 percent.

Even the housing sector showed signs of a recovery with the Dow Jones home construction index rising 6.1 percent after Goldman Sachs added home developer D.R. Horton to its “buy” list and Beazer Homes posted a loss that was not as bad as many analysts had predicted.