The Conference Board said its August employment trends index fell to 96.7, down from July’s revised figure of 97.4, first reported as 97.0. The August index is up 9.4% from a year ago.
“Employment growth has been slow lately, and the employment trends index suggests that it may slow even further this fall,” said Gad Levanon, associate director. Levanon, a Keynesian at heart, continued, “However, we still expect job growth rather than an outright decline in the next several months.”
Seven out of the eight components had a negative impact last month. The negative indicators were: the percentage of consumers who say jobs are “hard to get”, jobless claims, the percentage of firms with positions they’re not able to fill right now, involuntary part-time employment, job openings, industrial production and real business sales.
The CB said it is the first time since March 2009 that seven components contributed negatively to the overall index.
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