The Conference Board Employment Trends Index increased in December, after virtually no change in November. The index now stands at 107.1, up from the revised November index of 106.36. The change represents a 5.2 percent gain in the ETI compared to a year ago.
“The rapid improvement in the Employment Trends Index in recent months suggests that job growth is unlikely to slow down in the months ahead,” said Gad Levanon, chief economist, North America, at The Conference Board. “The US economy has been significantly accelerating in recent quarters and the tax cuts passed by Congress will provide an additional boost to the US economy in 2018. In such an environment, job growth will remain solid and the unemployment rate will reach lower than any rate since the 1960s.”
December’s increase in the ETI was fueled by positive contributions from six out of the eight components. From the largest positive contributor to the smallest, these were: Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find “Jobs Hard to Get,” Industrial Production, Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales, Percentage of Firms with Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now, Number of Employees Hired by the Temporary-Help Industry and Job Openings.
