Employment Trend Strengthens, Conference Board Says

NEW YORK -- The trend of employment in the U.S. strengthened for the
fourth consecutive month, according to a report released Monday.

The Conference Board said that its November employment trends index
rose to 90.8 from a revised 89.2 in October, which was originally
reported as 89.3. The November reading was the highest since March 2009
but was down 9.4% from a year earlier.

"The very small number of job losses in November was to be expected
given the increase in the Employment Trends Index in recent months, and
this month's large increase in the ETI suggests that job gains are
imminent," said Gad Levanon, senior economist at the Conference Board.
"However, the pace of hiring is likely to remain subdued because the
economic recovery is expected to be weak throughout the first half of
2010."

In November, the improving indicators were jobless claims, the
number of temporary employees, industrial production, job openings, and
real manufacturing and trade sales.

From the Wall Steet Journal | Dec 7, 2009

Last Friday's government report on November employment showed that
the U.S. labor markets lost far fewer jobs than expected, just 11,000
compared with a downwardly revised drop of 111,000 seen in October and
an expected 125,000 drop. The jobless rate also unexpectedly fell, to
10.0% from 10.2%; economists had thought it would remain at October's
level.

The Conference Board's index is an aggregate of eight labor-market
indicators, including jobless claims, job openings data from the Bureau
of Labor Statistics, and industrial production figures from the Federal
Reserve. It seeks to facilitate forecasts for employment, unemployment
and wages by filtering out the noise and volatility of monthly labor
market indicators and showing underlying trends more clearly.

The employment trends index is published every Monday following the government's monthly jobs report.

Write to Deborah Lynn Blumberg at deborah.blumberg@dowjones.com