The Conference Board's U.S. employment trends index edged up to a reading of 99.3 in December from 98.5 in November. The index is also up 7.6% from its December 2009 reading.

"The improvement in the employment trends index in recent months suggests employment growth is likely to accelerate moderately in the first half of 2011," said Gad Levanon, associate director of macroeconomic research at The Conference Board. "While this is a welcome improvement, we don't expect employment to grow fast enough for the unemployment rate to dip below 9 percent for the rest of the year."