The Conference
Board (CB) informed on Monday its employment trends index (ETI) for the U.S., a
leading composite indicator for employment, climbed by 0.9 per cent to 112.84 in
March from a downwardly revised 111.85 (from 112.29) in February.
According to
the report, last month’s advance in the ETI was due to positive contributions
from 5 of its 8 components, including Percentage of Respondents Who Say They
Find “Jobs Hard to Get”, Ratio of Involuntarily Part-time to All Part-time
Workers, Industrial Production, Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales, and Job
Openings.
Commenting on
the latest data, Will Baltrus, associate economist at the CB, noted that the
ETI’s March increase signalled employment will continue to grow in the second
quarter of 2024. “Although the ETI has been on a downward trajectory since its
peak in March 2022, this trend has decelerated since August 2023, with monthly
oscillations between modest increases and modest decreases,” he added. “However,
the Index remains above its pre-pandemic level and is still consistent with
continued employment growth.”