Conference Board News Release (06/08/15)

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index increased in May. The index now stands at 128.60, up from a downwardly revised 128.10 in April. The change represents a 5.1% gain in the ETI compared with a year ago.

“In the past six months, the [ETI] has been growing at a 3.5% annual rate, which is solid, but slower than the rates of the past two years. We therefore expect employment to grow by about 200,000 new jobs per month, rather than the spectacular 250,000-300,000 we experienced in 2014,” says Gad Levanon, managing director of macroeconomic and labor market research at the Conference Board. “Given that the labor force is barely expanding, job growth of about 200,000 per month will be sufficient to continue rapidly lowering the unemployment rate.”