The Conference Board Employment Trends Index increased slightly in September to 128.8, up from 128.7 in August. This represents a 4.6 percent gain in the ETI compared to a year ago.
“While Friday’s job report was a disappointment, and the trend in job growth is probably slower than in the last couple of years, the Employment Trends Index does not suggest a negative shock will impact the labor market any time soon,” said Gad Levanon, managing director of macroeconomic and labor market research at The Conference Board. “Slower job growth is more in line with the mediocre GDP growth of recent years, and also suggests that the very low productivity growth during that time is not sustainable.”
September’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: ratio of involuntarily part-time to all part-time workers, job openings, initial claims for unemployment insurance, real manufacturing and trade sales, and number of temporary employees.
