[caption id="attachment_26026" align="alignnone" width="640"] Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images[/caption]

By John Carney. Media: Breitbart

The U.S. labor market is likely remain strong in the months ahead, signaling that the softness in the labor market seen in the middle of last year was transitory, according to monthly gauge of employment trends The Conference Board’s employment trends index rose to 109.7 from a downwardly revised 109.45 in December, the private research group said Monday. “The ETI extended its streak of gains to three months in December,” said Conference Board economist Mitchell Barnes. “That closes 2024 with the index at its highest level since June, suggesting that the steady labor market normalization we’ve seen since 2022 may have reached its nadir in mid-2024. The slight improvement in the ETI we’ve seen since reflects the labor market’s resilience entering 2025.” The Conference Board’s employment trends index is comprised of a variety of labor market indicators. When the index rises, employment is likely to rise. When it falls, employment is likely to decline. On Friday, the Labor Department said the U.S. added 256,000 jobs in December, more than 100,000 than expected by economists. The unemployment rate ticked down a tenth of a point to 4.1 percent. Earlier last week, the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed the total number of vacant jobs at the end of November unexpectedly jumped to 8.1 million. The Conference B aord said growing confidence in the labor market, both in its current condition and in the future, is behind the rise in the index. The share of consumers who say that jobs are “hard to get” has fallen for three straight months from 18.6 percent in December to 14.8 percent in December. “December data highlights that the labor market continues on stable footing even after a long period of normalization during the post-pandemic recovery,” Barnes said. “High employment and wage growth have continued to support strong consumer spending and we expect labor demand to remain stable as businesses await an uncertain policy and economic environment next year.” The strength of the labor market has caused investors to retreat from expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates multiple times this year. Prices for federal funds futures—which are swaps that allow investors to bet on rate cuts from the Fed—suggest that the Fed will only cut interest rates once this year and may not cut at all. Late last year, the market was pricing in as many as four cuts this year.