The Conference
Board (CB) informed on Monday its employment trends index (ETI) for the U.S., a
leading composite indicator for employment, fell by 0.8 per cent to 111.25 in April
from a downwardly revised 112.16 (from 112.84) in March.
According to
the report, last month’s decline in the ETI was due to negative contributions
from 3 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, and Number of Employees Hired by the Temporary-Help Industry.
Commenting on
the latest data, Will Baltrus, associate economist at the CB, noted that the
ETI’s April fall indicates that employment growth could stall in the second
half of 2024. “The ETI has been on a downward trajectory since its peak in
March 2022, and this month signals a continuation of that trend,” he added. “However, the Index remains historically
elevated and is still above its prepandemic level, which suggests aggregate job
losses are less likely than a slowdown in employment growth.”