ECONOMY

Help-Wanted Index Falls Further: Demand for labor continued to slide in October, according to help-wanted advertising figures. The Conference Board, a business research group, said its help-wanted index skidded four points to 88, bringing the barometer 28 points below its level of October, 1990. The decline was expected, as the national unemployment rate rose to 6.8% in October from 6.7% in September. The index, which has a 1967 base of 100, looks at help-wanted advertising in 51 newspapers across the country. It is considered sensitive to changes in demand for labor.