The Conference Board Employment Trends Index increased in February to 127.8, up from 127.6 in January. This represents a 6.7 percent gain in the ETI compared to a year ago.
“The Employment Trends Index increased for the 14th consecutive time, the longest positive stretch in 30 years,” said Gad Levanon, managing director of macroeconomic and labor market research at The Conference Board. “Strong job growth and the rapid decline in the unemployment rate are likely to continue, and acceleration in wage growth is just a matter of time.”
February’s increase in the ETI was driven by positive contributions from five of the eight components. In order from the largest positive contributor to the smallest, these were: percentage of firms with positions not able to fill right now, ratio of involuntarily part-time to all part-time workers, real manufacturing and trade sales, industrial production and job openings.