The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI) improved slightly for the second straight month in August and is up more than 6 percent year over year.
The index stands at 108.59, up from the revised figure of 108.04 in July. The August figure is 6.2 percent higher than a year ago.
"Despite this month's rise, the (ETI) has barely increased since February, suggesting that slow job growth will continue in the short-term," said Gad Levanon, director of macroeconomic research at The Conference Board.
He said economic expansion was under 2 percent in recent months, a trend that should continue through the year, according to The Conference Board.
Levanon said in such an environment "it's difficult to foresee the economy adding much more than 100,000 jobs per month."
August's increase in the ETI was driven by positive contributions from four of eight components, including Percentage of Firms With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now and Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find "Jobs Hard to Get."
The ETI aggregates eight labor-market indicators to reveal underlying trends. They are:
-- Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find "Jobs Hard to Get" (The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey)
-- Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance (U.S. Department of Labor)
-- Percentage of Firms With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now (National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation)
-- Number of Employees Hired by the Temporary-Help Industry (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
-- Ratio of Involuntarily Part-time to All Part-time Workers (BLS)
-- Job Openings (BLS)
-- Industrial Production (Federal Reserve Board)
-- Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis)
The Conference Board publishes the Employment Trends Index monthly, at 10 a.m. ET on the Monday following each Friday release of the BLS Employment Situation report. The technical notes to this series are available on The Conference Board website.
The Conference Board is a global, independent business membership and research association, and is a nonadvocacy, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the U.S.
