Conference Board Index Hints at Jobless Recovery

New York, NY, Sept. 10, 2009--The Conference Board Employment Trends Index dropped 0.1 percent from the revised July number.

The index now stands at 88.1 and is down 18.5 percent from a year ago.

"The flatness of the Employment Trends Index in recent months suggests that we won't see job growth until the end of the year," said Gad Levanon, senior economist at The Conference Board.

"The fact that the index cannot get off the ground is another sign of a weak recovery, perhaps a jobless one."

The Employment Trends Index aggregates eight labor-market indicators, each of which has proven accurate in its own area. Aggregating individual indicators into a composite index filters out so-called "noise" to show underlying trends more clearly.