The Conference Board Employment Trends Index Increased In October

November 10, 2014

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI) increased in October.  The index now stands at 123.09, up from 121.91 (an upward revision) in September.  This represents a 7.7 percent gain in the ETI compared to a year ago.

“The Employment Trends Index continues to increase rapidly, with all eight components improving in October,” said Gad Levanon, Managing Director of Macroeconomic and Labor Market Research at The Conference Board.  “The index is signaling solid job growth through the winter.  As a result, we could see the unemployment rate reach its natural rate of 5.5 percent by early Spring.”

October’s increase in the ETI was driven by positive contributions from all eight components.  In order from the largest positive contributor to the smallest, these were: Percentage of Firms With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now, Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance, Ratio of Involuntarily Part-time to All Part-time Workers, Number of Temporary Employees, Industrial Production, Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find “Jobs Hard to Get,” Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales, and Job Openings.

The Employment Trends Index aggregates eight labor-market indicators, each of which has proven accurate in its own area.  Aggregating individual indicators into a composite index filters out “noise” to show underlying trends more clearly.

The eight labor-market indicators aggregated into the Employment Trends Index include:

• Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find “Jobs Hard to Get” (The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey)
• Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance (U.S. Department of Labor)
• Percentage of Firms With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now (National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation)
• Number of Employees Hired by the Temporary Help Industry (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Ratio of Involuntarily Part-time to All Part-time Workers (BLS)
• Job Openings (BLS)
• Industrial Production (Federal Reserve Board)
• Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis)

Source:The Conference Board