Diffusion indexes of employment change, private nonfarm payrolls, seasonally adjusted, Dec. 1997-Dec. 1998 Month Time span 1-month 3-month 6-month Dec. 1997 64.9 71.9 72.6 Jan. 1998 63.8 68.4 72.1 Feb. 1998 58.7 67.3 70.9 Mar. 1998 59.6 64.2 69.4 Apr. 1998 56.9 61.7 63.5 May 1998 58.6 60.4 64.5 June 1998 59.0 58.4 61.8 July 1998 55.1 57.2 59.0 Aug. 1998 53.9 56.7 58.1 Sept. 1998 53.5 56.0 58.1 Oct. 1998 52.4 53.7 60.8 Nov. 1998 54.8 57.6 57.4 Dec. 1998 56.6 58.1 56.3