The Conference Board Employment Trends Index(ETI) decreased in September to 100.95, down from the revised figure of 101.37 in August. The September figure is up 4.4 percent from the same month a year ago.

SaysGad Levanon, Director of Macroeconomic Research at The Conference Board: "Despite the somewhat better than expected employment numbers released on Friday, the decline in the Employment Trends Index in September suggests that weak job growth is likely to continue for the rest of 2011. Even as the economy remains slow going into the next year, we do not expect a major acceleration in layoffs, because employers have kept their workforce quite lean since the 2008/09 recession."

This month's weakness in the ETI was driven by negative contributions from six out of the eight components. The weakening indicators include The Conference BoardConsumer Confidence Survey"Jobs Hard to Get," Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance, Percentage of Firms With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now, Part-Time Workers for Economic Reasons, Industrial Production, and Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales.