The Conference Board Employment Trends Index increased in December to 129.3, up from 128.3 in November. This represents a 2.6 percent gain in the ETI compared to a year ago.

“The Employment Trends Index rebounded sharply in December, nearly erasing November’s entire decline,” said Gad Levanon, managing director of macroeconomic and labor market research at The Conference Board. “However, the slowdown in the ETI growth rate in recent months, combined with weak GDP growth in the fourth quarter, suggests that the pace of job growth is likely to slow in the coming months.”

December’s increase in the ETI was driven by positive contributions from seven of the eight components. In order from the largest positive contributor to the smallest, these were: Number of Temporary Employees, Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find “Jobs Hard to Get,” Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales, Industrial Production, Job Openings, Percentage of Firms With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now, and Ratio of Involuntarily Part-time to All Part-time Workers.