More good news is out on employment. The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI) rose in March. Monday’s report seems to somewhat shadow the gains seen in Friday’s unemployment and payrolls report. The index rose to 117.52 in March from an upwardly revised 117.01 in February. This represents a 5.1% gain in the ETI compared to a year ago.
March’s ETI gain was driven by positive contributions from four of the index’s eight components. The largest positive contributors were Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance, Industrial Production, Number of Temporary Employees, and Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales.
The Conference Board said:
The increase in the Employment Trends Index in the first quarter is signaling solid job growth in the coming months. With GDP forecasted to average 2.5 to 3.0 percent through the end of this year, there is little reason to expect employment growth to slow any time soon.
Investors should know that this is not a market-moving indicator, but it does at least support some of the trends seen from the Labor Department.
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