The Conference Board Employment Trends Index increased in November to 130, up from 129 in October. This represents a 2.7 percent gain in the ETI compared to a year ago.
“The Employment Trends Index is showing some signs of acceleration, suggesting that employment growth will not slow down further in the coming months,” said Gad Levanon, chief economist, North America, at The Conference Board. “Moderate employment growth will be enough to make the labor market even tighter, leading to more visible acceleration in wages and inflation.”
November’s improvement in the ETI was fueled by positive contributions from six of the eight components. In order from the largest positive contributor to the smallest, these were: Ratio of Involuntarily Part-time to All Part-time Workers, Percentage of Firms with Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now, Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance, Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales, Number of Employees Hired by the Temporary-Help Industry and Industrial Production.