The Conference Board’s US employment trends index edged down in March to a reading of 127.65 from 127.77 in February. The March reading is up 5.6% from the same month a year ago.

“The growth in the employment trends index slowed down in the first quarter of 2015,” said Gad Levanon, managing director of macroeconomic and labor market research at The Conference Board. “The combination of the disappointing March employment report and the recent weakness in the ETI suggests that the likelihood of a slowdown in employment has increased. Even so, it is unlikely that job growth in the second quarter would fall much below the trend of 200,000 jobs per month.”