Employment trend weakens

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Noted business research firm The Conference Board says that good news is that employment stats its gathering are the strongest that they’ve been in some time. Nevertheless, the Employment Trends Index for April, 100.5, is down from the March result of 101.1. CB says it’s the biggest one-month loss in two years.


CB Associate Director Macroeconomic Research Gad Levanon commented, “While employment is growing at the fastest rate in years, the leading indicators for employment are decisively flashing yellow. In April, the Employment Trends Index experienced the largest monthly decline in two years. It is unlikely that the current pace of job growth can be maintained in the months ahead.”

The firm looks at eight factors to generate its employment number, and of those, five experienced weakness. They included:

* Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance

* Percentage of Firms With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now,

* Number of Temporary Employees

* Part-Time Workers for Economic Reasons

* Job Openings

The other three component of the report are:

* Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find “Jobs Hard to Get”* Industrial Production

* Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales