Research >> Economics
Employment Trends Index Increased in May to 128.60
|
The Conference Board Employment Trends Index™ (ETI) increased in May. The index now stands at 128.60, up from 128.10 (a downward revision) in April. The change represents a 5.1 percent gain in the ETI compared to a year ago.
“In the past six months, the Employment Trends Index has been growing at a 3.5 percent annual rate, which is solid, but slower than the rates of the past two years. We therefore expect employment to grow by about 200,000 new jobs per month, rather than the spectacular 250,000-300,000 we experienced in 2014,” said Gad Levanon, Managing Director of Macroeconomic and Labor Market Research at The Conference Board. “Given that the labor force is barely expanding, job growth of about 200,000 per month will be sufficient to continue rapidly lowering the unemployment rate.”
May’s increase in the ETI was driven by positive contributions from six 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, Industrial Production, Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales, Number of Employees Hired by the Temporary-Help Industry, Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance, and Job Openings.
Posted: June 8, 2015 Monday 10:00 AM