an index that gauges employment trends in the us decreased slightly in may suggesting that the labor market is likely to remain strong despite high inflation the conference board employment trends index fell to 11977 in may from a revised 12060 in april according to data from the privateresearch group published monday the minor change of the reading in may suggests slowing but positive job growth in the months ahead said agron nicaj senior economist at the conference board the labor market may have less room for more growth with overall employment down only 05 compared to the prepandemic level he said the index is released after fridays employment report from the bureau of labor statistics which showed us employers created 390000 jobs in may leisure and hospitality and inperson services industries have yet to fully recover job losses incurred since the pandemic mr nicaj said employment growth is still expected in these industries as consumers continue to shift more spending away from goods and toward services he said the employment trends index is a leading composite index for employment which aggregates eight indicators when the index increases employment is likely to increase as well in may the decrease was led by negative contributions from four of its eight components the percentage of respondents who say they find jobs hard to get the ratio of involuntarily parttime to all parttime workers real manufacturing and trade sales and industrial production the labor market remains strong amid high inflation and the federal reserve is likely to continue its focus on stabilizing prices as a result mr nicaj said a strong response by the fed risks higher unemployment rates by the end of 2022 he warned