septembre 9, 2020

US & Canada Employment Trends Up!

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index increased in August as the US employment picture improved.

“Despite the rise in new Covid-19 cases at the beginning of the summer, job growth continues to gain momentum: the Employment Trends Index increased for the fourth consecutive month,” said Gad Levanon, head of The Conference Board Labor Markets Institute.

The Employment Trends Index rose to a reading of 52.55 in August, up from an upwardly revised reading of 51.37 in July. Still, it remains down from its year-ago reading of 109.8.

“Over the coming months, job growth will persist as industries impacted by social distancing such as travel, hotels, restaurants, and personal care will continue to recover. However, another wave of infections this fall would limit the expansion of the US labor market.” The index is an aggregation of eight labor market indicators: the percentage of respondents who say “jobs are hard to get” in The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Survey, initial claims for unemployment, the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation’s percentage of firms with positions not able to fill right now, number of employees hired by the temporary help industry, ratio of involuntarily part-time to all part-time workers, job openings, industrial production (Federal Reserve Board) and real manufacturing and trade sales.