SHRM and Rutgers to Jointly Release Monthly Employment Indicator

LINE will be released the fourth Tuesday of every month, according to the release, with the first report planned for November 23, 2004.   In the initial launch, the joint effort will release information from the manufacturing sector, since, according to the SHRM release, that sector tends to be the most cyclically sensitive and often acts as a leading indicator of change in the overall economy.

“HR professionals are positioned to accurately indicate employment in their organizations and can collectively predict employment and economic trends overall,” said Susan Meisinger, president and CEO of SHRM, in a press release. “We expect LINE to be a valuable source for economists, financial analysts, and informed business leaders throughout the country.”

“The rate of job creation is among the most important measures of the strength of our economy,” said Steven Director, a Rutgers faculty member and the principal investigator for the LINE project, in the news release “The SHRM/Rutgers LINE will provide decision and policy makers in the public and private sectors with timely information available from no other source.  It will remind the nation, on a monthly basis, of the key role HR professionals play in the functioning of the US economy.”