The Conference Board Employment Trends Index increased in May, following an increase in April. The index now stands at 133.70, up from 132.77 (an upward revision) in April. The change represents a 6.4 percent gain in the ETI compared to a year ago.
“While employment numbers have shown some softness in the past three months, there is no slowdown visible in the Employment Trends Index, suggesting solid job growth over the summer,” said Gad Levanon, chief economist, North America, at The Conference Board. “Employment will likely grow fast enough to continue tightening the labor market.”
May’s increase in the ETI was fueled by positive contributions from seven of the eight components. In order from the largest positive contributor to the smallest, these were: Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find “Jobs Hard to Get,” Ratio of Involuntarily Part-time to All Part-time Workers, Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance, Industrial Production, Number of Employees Hired by the Temporary-Help Industry, Percentage of Firms with Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now, and Job Openings.
