The Conference Board Employment Trends Index increased in October, following a decline in September. The index now stands at 108.16, up from 107.63 (a downward revision) in September. The October figure is 4.6 percent higher than a year ago.

"The Employment Trends Index bounced back in October, but only to the levels of July and August," said Gad Levanon, Director of Macroeconomic Research at The Conference Board. "This is still a weak signal. And given the recent sluggishness of economic activity, employment growth is poised to remain slow in the coming months as well."

October's rise in the ETI was driven by positive contributions from six of its eight components. The improving indicators — from the largest positive contributor to the smallest — were Ratio of Involuntarily Part-time to All Part-time Workers, Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find "Jobs Hard to Get," Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance, Number of Temporary Employees, 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 "noise" to show underlying trends more clearly.