ECONOMY

Help-Wanted Ads Decline: U.S. newspapers ran fewer help-wanted ads during August than July, indicating a slowdown in the labor market, the Conference Board reported. The business research group said its widely watched help-wanted advertising index sagged to 118 in August from 122 in July. A year ago the index stood at 103. “The labor market is clearly cooling,” said Ken Goldstein, a Conference Board economist. “New hiring is less intense than during the summer months, when the economy generated 300,000 new jobs a month.” The survey covered 51 major newspapers nationwide.