The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI)(TM) Edges Up in September; First Increase Since January 2008

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI)(TM) Edges Up in September;
First Increase Since January 2008

NEW YORK, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The Conference Board Employment Trends Index
(ETI)(TM) increased 0.3 percent from the revised August number, the first
increase since January 2008. The index now stands at 88.5 and is down 15.6
percent from a year ago.

"While the employment numbers reported by the government last Friday were
certainly disappointing, The Conference Board Employment Trends Index(TM)
suggests that the trend of declining job losses will continue," said Gad
Levanon, Senior Economist at The Conference Board. "But the road to recovery
is definitely going to be bumpy and may last unusually long, given the depth
of the recession we have experienced."

This month's increase in the Employment Trends Index(TM) was driven by a
positive contribution from four out of the eight components. The improving
indicators were Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance, Percentage of Firms
With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now, Industrial Production and Real
Manufacturing and Trade Sales.

The Employment Trends Index(TM) aggregates eight labor-market indicators, each
of which has proven accurate in its own area. Aggregating individual
indicators into a composite index filters out so-called "noise" to show
underlying trends more clearly.

The eight labor-market indicators aggregated into the Employment Trends
Index(TM) include:
-- 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)
-- Part-Time Workers for Economic Reasons (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(TM) monthly, at 10
a.m. ET on the Monday that follows each Friday release of the Bureau of Labor
Statistics employment situation report. The technical notes to this series are
available on The Conference Board website:
www.conference-board.org/economics/employment.cfm.

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United States.

SOURCE The Conference Board

Gad Levanon of The Conference Board, +1-212-339-0317,
Gad.levanon@conference-board.org