The Conference Board Employment Trends Index increased in October to 129.5, up from 128.7 in September. This represents a 4.1 percent gain in the ETI compared to a year ago.
“The Employment Trends Index continues to show solid and broad-based gains, with no significant slowdown in job growth expected through the first quarter of 2016,” said Gad Levanon, managing director of macroeconomic and labor market research at The Conference Board. “Solid job growth and the lack of recovery in labor-force participation suggest that the unemployment rate may dip below 4.5 percent by this time next year.”
October’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: ratio of involuntarily part-time to all part-time workers, number of temporary employees, real manufacturing and trade sales, industrial production, initial claims for unemployment insurance and job openings.
