Job Listings Continued to Fall in January
Across the nation unemployment lines are steadily growing. During January the country’s jobless rate climbed from 7.2 percent to 7.6 percent and, to no one’s surprise, job listings continued to decline. According to the Conference Board, the Employment Trends Index also dropped again in January.
The Index fell 1.0 percent from December’s 96.6 percent to 96.6 percent. This is particularly concerning when compared to the previous years. Between then and now there has been an 18.6 percent decline.
“The Employment Index has recently been declining faster than at any time since the 1974 recession,” said the Conference Board’s Senior Economist Gad Levanon. “Such declines suggest considerable job losses will persist for several more months. It is becoming clearer that the continued worsening economic conditions are forcing many companies to make further downward adjustments to their workforce.”
According to the data, the Employment Trends Index has been falling for the last 18 months. The decline has been seen throughout all eight of the categories the Conference Board monitors, but over the last six months this decrease has been particularly significant in the areas of temporary help hires and part-time employees for reason rooted in the current economy.
The Employment Trends Index uses eight separate labor-market indicators, all of which have been found to be accurate in their own right. Afterwards, these areas are combined to give a better picture of the current hiring situation. By doing this, the Conference Board is able to get a better picture of whether or not the number of job listings and other factors affecting the job market are actually declining. It also enables them to see what the trends really are.
The eight areas that come together to create the index are: the percentage of people polled who say that finding a job is difficult (The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey), Claims for Unemployment Insurance (U.S. Department of Labor), the number of employees hired on a temporary basis (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), the percentage of firms that are not able to fill positions at the time (National Federation of Independent Business), the number of people hired by temp agencies (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), part-time workers hired for Economic Reasons (BLS), job listings (BLS), Industrial Production (Federal Reserve Board) and Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis).
The Conference Board will be releasing its newest Employment Trends Index at 10:00 am on March 9th. This report will show how the job market faired in February. The Conference Board always releases the report the Monday after the Friday that the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its employment situation report.
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