The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI)™ dropped 0.1 percent from the revised July number. The index now stands at 88.1 and is down 18.5 percent from a year ago.


"The flatness of the Employment Trends Index in recent months suggests that we won't see job growth until the end of the year," said Gad Levanon, Senior Economist at The Conference Board. "The fact that the index cannot get off the ground is another sign of a weak recovery, perhaps a jobless one."

This month, the components of the Employment Trends Index™ showed a mixed picture, resulting in the moderate decline. The improving indicators were Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find "Jobs Hard to Get" from The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey, Percentage of Firms With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now, Industrial Production and Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales.

The Employment Trends Index™ 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™ 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)