The Conference Board Employment Trends Index increased in April to 128.3, up from 126.4 in March. This represents a 1.4 percent gain in the ETI compared to a year ago.
“Despite the April bounce back in the Employment Trends Index, its growth has slowed in recent months, suggesting that job growth will also slow,” said Gad Levanon, chief economist, North America, at The Conference Board. “Employers have become more cautious as economic growth remains moderate and profits decline. Looking ahead, we anticipate job growth will remain below 200,000 a month.”
April’s increase in the ETI was driven by positive contributions from all eight components. In order from the largest positive contributor to the smallest, these were: the Percentage of Firms With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now, Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find “Jobs Hard to Get,” Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance, Ratio of Involuntarily Part-time to All Part-time Workers, Industrial Production, Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales, Job Openings, and the Number of Employees Hired by the Temporary-Help Industry.
