The Conference Board’s Employment Trends Index (ETI) rose for the third consecutive month. A gain of 0.8% in December brought the ETI to 99.3 from November’s revised figure of 98.5, according to the Conference Board, a New York-based private research group. “The improvement in the Employment Trends Index in recent months suggests employment growth is likely to accelerate moderately in the first half of 2011,” said Gad Levanon, associate director of macroeconomic research at the Conference Board. The ETI combines eight labor market indicators to forecast short-term hiring trends. Overall, the index is up 7.6% over the same period in 2009.
Conference-board.org – Jan. 10, 2011