Employment Trends Index Takes a Dip in June

Here’s some news we thought would be helpful for any of our temporary staffing invoice factoring readers:

Who would have thought that the summertime blues could refer to job growth? Though the U.S. economy is not hemorrhaging jobs like it did a few years ago, the rate of growth has stalled in recent months.

According to this press release, “The Conference Board Employment Trends IndexTM (ETI) dipped to 107.47 in June.” Though this number is 5.6 percent higher than June of last year, and 19.54 percent higher than three years ago, it marks a fall from May’s number, 108.23.

The drop was caused by negative developments in four of eight categories that comprise the index. Three of these components are listed in the article:

1. The “Ratio of Involuntarily Part-time to All Part-time Workers”
2. “Percentage of Firms with Positions Not Able to be Filled Right Now”
3. “Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance”
4. Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find Jobs “Hard to Get.”

The other four categories that are weighted towards the Employment Trends Index include:

1. Number of employees hired by the Temporary Help Industry
2. Job Openings
3. Real manufacturing and Trade Sales
4. Industrial Production.