The Conference Board’s employment trends index rose 0.3% to 88.5 in September, from a revised 88.2 in August, originally reported as 88.1, and is down 15.6% from a year ago, the group announced yesterday.
“While the employment numbers reported by the government last Friday were certainly disappointing, the Conference Board employment trends index 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.”
Half of the of the components of the index were better in September, according to the board.
The improving indicators were initial claims for unemployment insurance, the percentage of firms with positions they are not able to fill right now, industrial production, and real manufacturing and trade sales.
