The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI)™ continued to rise in December, its sixth consecutive increase. The index now stands at 91.8, up 1.7 percent from the November figure. The index is down 5.2 percent from a year ago. This month’s increase was driven by positive contributions from all eight components.

"Given the sharp and widespread improvement in the Employment Trends Index in recent months, it is very likely that we will see at least some job growth during the first quarter," said Gad Levanon, Associate Director, Macroeconomic Research at The Conference Board. "Despite the disappointing job report last Friday, the relatively strong economic recovery in the second half of 2009 suggests that the employment trend should reach a turning point in the very near future."

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)