NEW YORK, March 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. employment trends index (ETI) increased in February, following a decline in January, said a report released by The Conference Board on Monday.
The index rose from 109.34 in January to 111.15, marking a 4.3-percent gain in the ETI over the past 12 months, the New York-based institute reported.
"One of the ETI components, the percent of respondents who say they find 'jobs hard to get' from The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey, is now at the lowest rate since 2000," said Gad Levanon, chief economist at The Conference Board, adding that January's reading had been negatively influenced by the partial government shutdown.
The Conference Board ETI aggregates eight labor-market indicators. February's increase was fueled by positive contributions from seven of the eight components.
From the largest positive contributor to the smallest were: the ratio of involuntarily part-time to all part-time workers, percentage of respondents who say they find "jobs hard to get," real manufacturing and trade sales, the percentage of firms with positions not able to fill right now, job openings, industrial production, and the number of employees hired by the temporary-help industry, according to the report.
"In recent months, the index is no longer on an upward trend, suggesting that job growth will slow down in 2019," said Levanon.
U.S. job gains plunged to 20,000 in February after increasing by 311,000 in January, the Labor Department reported Friday. The reading was far below the average job growth of 223,000 per month in 2018.
