The Conference Board is reporting a decline in their August Employment Trends Index. Weakness in the index was broad with its worst overall showing since March 2009. Although the index has stagnated in recent months they do expect continued meager growth:
The Conference Board Employment Trends Index™ (ETI) decreased in August for the second time in the past four months. The index now stands at 96.7, down from July’s revised figure of 97.4. The index is up 9.4 percent 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, Macroeconomic Research at The Conference Board.
“However, we still expect job growth rather than an outright decline in the next several months.” This month’s decline in the Employment Trends Index was driven by negative contributions from seven out of the eight components. The weakening indicators included Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find “Jobs Hard to Get”, Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance, Percentage of Firms With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now, Part-Time Workers for Economic Reasons, Job Openings, Industrial Production and Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales. It is the first time since March 2009 that seven components contributed negatively to the overall index.
Source: Conference Board
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.