Conference Board: The index of US employment improves again in July

The report from the Conference Board, showed that US employment trends index, representing a set of labor market indicators continued to improve in the last month.

According to the data, the July employment trends index increased to 128.28 compared to 127.89 in June. In annual terms, the index rose by 1.6 percent.

The index includes eight US labor market indicators. In particular, these indicators include the number of applications for unemployment benefits and the number of new jobs announced, reported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and industrial production figures, calculated by the Federal Reserve. The index is designed to filter out confounding factors and volatility of monthly labor market indicators in order to demonstrate more clearly the trend. In July, five of the eight components of the index recorded an increase.

"Employment trends index still suggests that job growth will slow in the coming months, despite the strong performance on employment in June and July. It is surprising that hiring was so strong, given the current slow economic growth. It is possible that the rate of economic growth were in fact stronger than the anemic GDP increasing by 1.2 percent over the past four quarters, "- said Gad Levanon, economist at Conference Board.