The Conference
Board (CB) announced on Monday that its employment trends index (ETI) for the U.S.,
a leading composite indicator for employment, fell 0.5 per cent to 107.49 in May
from an upwardly revised 108.00 (from 107.57) in April.
According to
the report, last month’s drop in the ETI was due to negative contributions from
4 of its 8 components, including Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find “Jobs
Hard to Get,” Number of Employees Hired by the Temporary-Help Industry, Initial
Claims for Unemployment Insurance and Job Openings.
Commenting on
the latest data, Mitchell Barnes, Economist at The CB, noted that the ETI in
May continued to slow relative to the start of 2025. “But despite general
tariff wariness, the ETI is currently above the 2017-19 average, suggesting
that the labor market broadly remains on solid footing,” he added.