The Conference Board Employment Trends Index rose in November, marking consecutive monthly gains for the first time this year, signaling strengthening labor market conditions.

Overall, the index rose to a reading of 109.55 in November from an upwardly revised 108.25 in October.

“The ETI rose again in November, marking consecutive monthly gains for the first time in 2024,” Mitchell Barnes, economist at The Conference Board, said in a press release.

Barnes noted that the October and November increases represent the largest two-month gain in the ETI since the torrid period of job gains in 2022 coming out of the pandemic.

“The improvement in ETI largely reflects November data on employment, turnover and economic activity — which all came in on target,” Barnes said. “We see labor demand sitting in a healthy range through November but a range that is clearly lower than we saw in the rehiring frenzy following the pandemic.”

Rising sentiment among job seekers and businesses is contributing to ETI’s increases. One component of the ETI — the share of respondents who report “jobs are hard to get” in The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Survey — fell for the second consecutive month, dropping to 15.2% in November from 17.6% in October.

November’s increase in the Employment Trends Index was driven by positive contributions from seven of its eight components: percentage of respondents who say they find “jobs hard to get,” real manufacturing and trade sales, initial claims for unemployment insurance, industrial production, ratio of involuntarily part-time to all part-time workers, percentage of firms with positions not able to fill right now, and the number of employees hired by the temporary help industry.

The Conference Board anticipates increased positive sentiment ahead, supported by reduced policy and interest rate uncertainty, which could help maintain and bolster labor market strength into 2025.