Conference Board Employment Trends Index Continues to Rise

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index rose for the second month in a row in October, by 0.7%, reaching 89.3. From a year ago, the index is down 13.2%.

“The Employment Trends Index has likely turned a corner in September, and this historical relationship between the index and employment suggests that job losses will end in early 2010,” said Gad Levanon, senior economist at The Conference Board. “While layoffs have certainly declined in recent months, we still expect to see employers adding hours to their existing workforce before hiring will strongly increase.”

In October, the four of the eight components of the index that showed improvement were fewer initial claims for unemployment insurance, a decrease in the number of temporary employees, a rise in industrial production and real manufacturing, and an improvement in trade sales.

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