SmallBusinessNewz

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index rose again in May for the ninth month in a row.

The index is now at 95.7, up from April's revised figure of 95.1. The index is up almost 9 percent from a year ago.

"The ongoing growth in the Employment Trends Index suggests that the disappointing uptick in payroll employment in May could just be a one-month blip, and that jobs will likely expand further in the next several months," said Gad Levanon, Associate Director, Macroeconomic Research at The Conference Board.

"However, as some of the components of the ETI have yet to signal robust gains, the pace of recovery in employment may remain moderate."

This month's increase in the Employment Trends Index was driven by positive contributions from five out of the eight components. The improving indicators were: Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find "Jobs Hard to Get," Number of Temporary Employees, Part-Time Workers for Economic Reasons, Industrial Production and Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales.

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.