Help-Wanted Index

Who: Conference Board

When: Last Thursday of every month

What: Help-wanted advertising is a leading indicator of trends in the job market. The index is based on a survey of help-wanted advertising in the same 51 newspapers across the nation and an index is then generated for the nation, nine census divisions and the 51 metro areas in which those newspapers are published. The year 1987 is used as the base year and it is assigned a value of 100. The index is seasonally adjusted to keep it accurate.

Why: The index is used as an indicator for the future of the labor market but it does have a lag time of about three months. It is only a good measure for the big 51 metro markets and it does not take into account changes in advertising for jobs by employers.