The Conference Board’s US Employment Trends Index edged down in December to a reading of 129.62 from November’s downwardly revised reading of 129.93. The December reading, which followed an increase in November, is up 2.2% from the same month a year ago.

“After strong growth over the previous three months, the Employment Trends Index declined slightly in the final month of 2016. However, the ETI’s trend suggests that job growth will remain solid in early 2017,” said Gad Levanon, chief economist, North America, at The Conference Board. “And, employers have become more upbeat in recent months, suggesting the labor market may very well tighten faster than pre-election expectations.”

Negative contributions from five of the eight components fueled December’s decrease. The percentage of respondents who say they find “jobs hard to get,” was the largest negative contributor, followed by the percentage of firms with positions not able to fill right now, and the number of employees hired by the temporary-help industry, respectively.

The US Department of Labor on Friday reported the US added 156,000 jobs in December but lost 15,500 temp jobs.