Conference Board Employment Trends Index Inches Upward

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index gained 0.50 percentage points in June, rising from 99.5 to 100.00—an increase of 5.4% from June 2010.

“The behavior of the Employment Trends Index in recent months is consistent with weak job growth, rather than an outright decline,” said Gad Levanon, associate director of macroeconomic research at The Conference Board. “The abysmal uptick in employment in the past two months is not just a reaction to the slowdown in economic activity in the first half of 2011 but also a result of employers becoming downbeat about their hiring needs in the coming months.”

In June, only three of the eight components that make up the Employment Trends Index were positive. The three improving indicators were initial claims for unemployment insurance, the percentage of firms with positions they are not able to fill right now, and the forecast for real manufacturing and trade sales.

The five components that either stayed the same or deteriorated were the percentage of people who say they find jobs hard to get, the number of employees hired by the temporary help industry, part-time workers for economic reasons, industrial production, and last but not least, job openings.