The Conference Board Employment Trends Index Declined in May

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The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI) decreased in May, after rebounding in April. The index now stands at 126.81, down from an upwardly revised 128.53 in April. The change represents a modest 0.7% gain in the ETI compared to a year ago.

"The Employment Trends Index decreased in May. Its continued weakness suggests that job growth will remain modest in the coming months," said Gad Levanon, Chief Economist, North America, at The Conference Board. "Despite softening in the ETI, its recent decline is not nearly as large as those that have preceded past employment contractions."

May's decrease in the ETI was fueled by negative contributions from six out of eight components. In order from the largest negative contributor to the smallest, these were: Ratio of Involuntarily Part-time to All Part-time Workers, Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance, Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find "Jobs Hard to Get," Percentage of Firms With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now, Number of Employees Hired by the Temporary-Help Industry, 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.