Conference Board Employment Trends Index up 1$% at 93.2 month on month; down 0.7% year on year

The Conference Board's Employment Trends Index inched up 1% in January to 93.2 after an upwardly revised reading of 92.3 in December (orginally 91.8). The index is now up 5 months in a row w/ the largest increase from November to December (2.3) suggesting some seasonal factors may be at work. Indeed the 2.5% increase in December was more than 2 times the average monthly increase over the last five months. That said, the Conference Board is confident that Q1 2010 will indeed see job growth with 6 of it's 8 job market indicators up in January. A Conference Board spokesperson said that "the continued rise in the ETI makes us more optimistic that job growth will resume in the first quarter of 2010. They also noted that "improvement is widespread across all 8 components."