The Conference Board Employment Trends Index increased in November for the second consecutive month. The index now stands at 99, up from October’s revised figure of 97.6. The index is up 9.3 percent from a year ago. “The disappointing employment numbers released (Dec. 3) are at odds with most of the leading indicators included in the Employment Trends Index. While we are not expecting economic activity or employment to grow rapidly anytime soon, we do expect employment to continue to moderately increase, following the trend of recent months,” Gad Levanon, a researcher for the business organization, said in a news release. Increases in the index were driven by improvements in initial claims for unemployment benefits, percentage of firms with positions they’re not able to fill right now, number of temporary employees, part-time workers for economic reasons, job openings, industrial production and real manufacturing and trade sales.