Uptick in May employment index seen as signal that worst is over

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index saw a small uptick in May, increasing 0.2% to 89.9, from 89.7 in April. The index is still down 20% from a year ago, but economists are hopeful that this could be a sign that the economy is rebounding. “While it is too early to say that the ETI has bottomed, the moderation of the last two months is certainly a sign that the decline in job losses is real and signals that the worst is over,” Gad Levanon, senior economist at The Conference Board Inc., said in a statement. That said, the economic recovery will be slow, and the unemployment rate will likely climb into the double digits by the end of this year and into 2010, he said. The Employment Trends Index includes eight labor market indicators from different sources, including initial claims of unemployment insurance, which come from the U.S. Department of Labor, the number of employees hired by the temporary-help industry, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and job openings, from data filed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The New York-based Conference Board is a global, independent business membership and research association which publishes this monthly index, which is derived from various labor reports.