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The Conference Board Employment Trends Index™ (ETI) increased in August to 109.04 amid a downtrend in the index, and following July’s downwardly revised 108.71. The Employment Trends Index is a leading composite index for payroll employment. When the Index increases, employment is likely to grow as well, and vice versa. Turning points in the Index indicate that a change in the trend of job gains or losses is about to occur in the coming months.

“The ETI rose in August, recording just its second monthly gain of 2024,” said Mitchell Barnes, Economist at The Conference Board. “In the context of labor market data that is broadly softening, the improvement in the ETI is a positive indication that the pace of labor market slowdown remains sustainable ahead of September’s Fed meeting, where we expect the interest rate cutting cycle to begin. Though some ETI components have weakened, August’s gains puts the index back above the level it averaged in 2019—which at the time was considered a historically hot labor market.”

Barnes added: “August’s bounce in ETI coincided with last week’s positive Employment Situation Report for August, which showed payrolls expanding at a healthy pace, unemployment ticking back down, and no signs are emerging that could accelerate the gradual slowing into deterioration.” Supporting that story, initial claims for unemployment insurance (an ETI component) have fallen marginally in recent weeks and are not signaling sizable layoffs. Employment in temporary help services (an ETI component) was flat. Neither average weekly hours nor the share of involuntary part-time workers (another ETI component) collapsed. Meanwhile, metrics of household spending and production have remained strong.

That said, the overall steady decline of the ETI since peaking in 2022 is consistent with a collection of measures that point to increasing challenges for jobseekers not already employed. The share of respondents who report ‘jobs are hard to get’—an ETI component from the Consumer Confidence Survey®—rose to 16.4% in August 2024, up from 11% to start the year. But again, this roughly aligns to the 2017-2019 pre-pandemic average. The downward trend, though is consistent with the Federal Reserve Beige Book released last week, which highlighted anecdotal evidence that some firms had shifted hiring ‘to be primarily for replacement, rather than growth’ even as ‘layoffs remained rare.’

Labor shortages seem to be reemerging as a challenge, which we also see as a longer-term issue due to an aging workforce and specific talent shortfalls. The share of small firms that report jobs are ‘not able to be filled right now’ (an ETI component) rose to 40% in August and has fluctuated between 37-42% in 2024. Though this share of firms facing hiring difficulties has fallen from levels immediately following the pandemic, we expect it to remain at a more elevated level going forward, driven by long-run demographic and talent challenges.

August’s increase in the Employment Trends Index was driven by positive contributions from four of its eight components: Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales, Job Openings, Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance, and Industrial Production.

The Employment Trends Index aggregates eight leading indicators of employment, 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.

The eight leading indicators of employment aggregated into the Employment Trends Index include:

• Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find “Jobs Hard to Get” (The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey^®)

• Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance (U.S. Department of Labor)

• Percentage of Firms with Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now (© National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation)

• Number of Employees Hired by the Temporary-Help Industry (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

• Ratio of Involuntarily Part-time to All Part-time Workers (BLS)

• Job Openings (BLS)*

• Industrial Production (Federal Reserve Board)*

• Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis)**

*Statistical imputation for the recent month
**Statistical imputation for two most recent months

The Conference Board publishes the Employment Trends Index monthly, at 10 a.m. ET, on the Monday that follows each Friday release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation report. The technical notes to this series are available on The Conference Board website: http://www.conference-board.org/data/eti.cfm.

PatientRightsAdvocate.org (PRA) released a new poll conducted by Echelon Insights and Social Sphere that found price transparency in healthcare continues to be one of the most significant issues for the overwhelming majority of Americans.

The poll conducted among Likely Electorate voters nationwide, surveyed August 23-27, found:

• 92% Support requirements for hospitals and insurers to provide real prices upfront

  • 94% Of Democrats

  • 92% of independents

  • 91% of Republicans

• 98% Support transparent pricing in healthcare compared to 90% for airlines and 85% for event tickets

• 91% Agree that upfront prices would protect workers from overcharges and hidden fees

• 88% Agree that access to healthcare prices would increase competition and lower costs

• 77% Prefer a president who will demand healthcare price transparency

• More than 1 in 3 Postponed or avoided care due to unknown costs in the last year

  • Especially true (49%) for those with children under 18 at home

“Time and again, the American people have voiced strong support for price transparency in healthcare,” said Cynthia Fisher, Founder and Chairman of PatientRightsAdvocate.org. “The price of healthcare impacts all Americans, no matter their background, age, or zip code. That’s why Patient Rights Advocate will continue to educate lawmakers on the importance of this critical issue and delivering relief through bipartisan solutions in the Health Care PRICE Transparency Act 2.0.”

The findings showed healthcare price transparency was more popular than many of the major policy initiatives recently rolled out by the Biden-Harris administration.

“While Americans clearly care most about transparent pricing in healthcare, the highest levels of government have chosen instead to address hidden fees for concerts and sporting events,” said Fisher. “Lawmakers have also placed more emphasis on student loan debt than medical debt, our nation’s leading cause of bankruptcy. I’m hopeful after seeing the results of this poll, conducted by two of the most well-guarded professionals in the field, policymakers will have the insight needed to prioritize healthcare price transparency and protect and empower American families and workers through actual upfront prices.”

To see more on the results of the poll click here. For more information visit PatientRightsAdvocate.org and follow on X @PtRightsAdvoc

Client Advisor with Sterling Seacrest Pritchard Walt Lee explains the power of telematics in the management of commercial fleets.

Increases in major cost categories like housing and vehicles have contributed substantially to recent inflation, while sectors like food and energy have seen great volatility in prices. But one other significant source of pressure has been household items. Household items can represent a large chunk of household spending—and, with inflation, a big reason why more households are feeling pinched.

Household items are typically classified as either durable or nondurable goods—where durable goods are those tangible products that can be stored or inventoried and that have an average life of at least three years, and nondurable goods have an average life of less than three years. Common household items include televisions, smartphones, furniture, apparel, cleaning supplies, and outdoor equipment.

Ranking Methodology:

Researchers ranked U.S. states according to the share of consumer spending spent on household items.

Researchers also ranked common household items based on their CPI percentage change from March 2020 to July 2024.

Results – Household Item Inflation:

• Cumulatively, nondurable goods now cost 20.7% more than they did in early 2020, while durable goods are up 16.2%.

• Since the pandemic began in March 2020, nine categories of household goods have seen prices cumulatively increase by more than 20%, led by household paper products with a 30.8% increase.

• Over the last year, video discs and other media have seen a price increase of 15.3%, with other categories also seeing increases well above the overall rate of CPI inflation.

Consumer Spending Trends in Georgia:

• Overall, 14.2% of consumer spending in Georgia goes to household items—the 10th most of any U.S. state.

• While 18.7% of adults in Georgia are facing severe difficulty paying for their usual household expenses, 48.9% admit to feeling very stressed about recent price increases.

Below is a complete data breakout for Georgia. The full report contains data on household spending characteristics for all 50 states, as well as price changes for nearly 50 common household items since March 2020.

Porsche Cars North America, Inc. (PCNA) is celebrating the 40th anniversary of becoming a sales organization in North America.

Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, PCNA was responsible for just three model lines in 1984 – the 944, 928 and the 911. It proved to be an exciting year for the brand. At Le Mans, Porsche cars occupied eight of the top nine finishing positions – including winning the race outright with the mighty 956B. Meanwhile, away from the track (and mostly away from roads) a Porsche car won the grueling Paris-Dakar rally in a G series 911.  

Just like in 1984, Porsche-brand cars continue to thrive in motorsport – with national series such as the Porsche Carrera Cup North America growing year after year while international endurance racing and Formula E are led by the 963 and 99X electric respectively. On the road, the 911 Dakar harks back to the pioneering win in the rally of the same name in 1984.

Highlights from PCNA’s 40-year history can be found here.

Travel Company’s Biggest Challenges are Solvable

What are Today’s Travel Business Challenges? What challenges is your travel business facing today? Knowing them is critical for continued success against growing competition, who are also studying your target customer. The travel industry is changing, especially with the market aging or seeing more young people who love technology and online marketing. Let’s take a…

Associate Vice President of Student Affairs at Georgia Piedmont Technical College Dr. Melinda Robinson-Moffett talks about some exciting things happening at GPTC and some benefits to attending a technical college.

The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) unveiled today the names of 34 program participants selected to participate in its 2024 Culture and Community Design (CCD) program. The Culture and Community Design program runs from August through mid-December.

This is the second class of the immersive program where participants will examine the space between community building, arts and cultural work, and urban planning. The 2024 class is comprised of artists, organizers, local officials, and planners, who will work with two community organizations, serving underrepresented populations, to design projects and planning initiatives focused on arts and culture.

CCD is a component of ARC’s Culture, and Creative Placemaking Strategic Plan, which provides a blueprint for integrating arts and culture into ARC’s planning work to help build a thriving and healthy region. The program will be co-led by Rosten Woo, a Los Angeles-based artist, designer, writer, and educator. Woo produces civic-scale artworks and works as a collaborator and consultant to a variety of grassroots, non-profit organizations, and local governments such as Los Angeles Poverty Department, the Black Workers Center, as well as the city of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County.

His work has also been exhibited internationally at art and design institutes and can be found at public housing developments and shopping malls, on tugboats, and in parks. Woo is also the co-founder and former executive director of the Center for Urban Pedagogy, a New York-based, non-profit organization and winner of a national design award for institution achievement.

“We have a wonderful cohort excited about how to think of arts and community engagement in planning,” said Roshani Thakore, head of Community Engagement & Culture at ARC. “Over the past two years, we’ve been refining our community engagement and culture class. We can’t wait to see how the diversity in perspectives and experiences will shape their projects and ultimately the ecosystem of arts, culture and creative placemaking across the region.”

Duluth’s VoiceNation kicked off an expansion of its ongoing partnership with Rainbow Village on National Humanitarian Day with employees volunteering in a variety of ways with the local nonprofit that serves families currently experiencing homelessness. Participating employees helped clean and organize the community kitchenwhere families enjoy home-cooked meals, and looked after the children in the Afterschool Club where they helped them make wooden racecars.

Through the VoiceNation partnership, employees sign-up to volunteer on chosen dates with both Rainbow Village’s Afterschool Club and Life Skills Evenings. For the weekday afterschool program VoiceNation volunteers will help children with their pre-planned activities, ranging from STEM, crafts, free play, financial literacy, and emotional intelligence for children aged 5 to 18.  

Life Skills Evenings are part of Rainbow Village’s residential program (ASPIRE) providing evening classes for parents that take place four times a month. Families eat together, then the adults go to class while Moneypenny’s volunteers help with the children from infant to 18 years old. 

With a US headquarters in Duluth, VoiceNation, which is part of Moneypenny, handles more than 20 million calls and chats for businesses annually, supporting companies of all shapes and sizes across the US and UK with call answering, live chat and bespoke and proactive customer communication services.

Tifany Bruner, Agency Manager for Georgia Farm Bureau, discusses the changes she has seen in the insurance industry over the past 23 years in the industry. Most insurance companies have changed from a model that was built around local communities to a model that requires you to go online or call a 1-800 number for all of your needs. She is proud that Farm Bureau has not wavered in its commitment to keeping local agents in Georgia communities and discusses how this model has allowed her to better serve her community in their times of need.