Conference Board's Jobless Recovery

The Conference Board is known for many key economic readings in the US and abroad, but this morning’s data may just add a little more fear that the hope and belief of a stabilizing jobs market are more hope than meat.  The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI)™ was lower by 0.1% to 88.1% percent from the revised July figure of 88.2%.  The original unrevised figure for July was 88.3%.  As far as how this looks from a year ago, that August figure is down 18.5% from a year ago and the July figure is down 20.2% if you count the revised data from the original data.

The Conference Board’s senior economist noted that this “….suggests that we won’t see job growth until the end of the year.” The description of the expected recovery here is a weak one, and echoes that the fears of a jobless recovery are still likely.

Green shoots is a media term that is oh-so “April and May 2009 vintage” but this still keeps the For more details and for how this is calculated, you can look at the full data from the Conference Board.

JON C. OGG
SEPTEMBER 8, 2009