The Conference
Board (CB) reported on Monday its employment trends index (ETI) for the U.S., a
leading composite indicator for employment, jumped by 0.9 per cent to 111.44 in
May from a downwardly revised 110.48 (from 111.25) in April.
According to
the report, last month’s advance in the ETI was due to positive contributions
from 6 of its 8 components, including Percentage of Respondents Who Say They
Find “Jobs Hard to Get,” Job Openings, Percentage of Firms with Positions Not
Able to Fill Right Now, Ratio of Involuntarily Part-time to All Part-time
Workers, Industrial Production, and Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales.
Commenting on the latest data, Will Baltrus,
associate economist at the CB, said that the ETI’s May uptick signals
employment could rise in the second half of the year, but noted that the ETI’s
longer-term downward trajectory signals the high level of monthly increases in
employment observed post-pandemic could slow down. “That said, the Index
remains far above its pre-pandemic level, which suggests aggregate job losses
are less likely than a deceleration in hiring,” he added.