[PEN-L:4714] FW: BLS Daily Report

[Richardson_D <RichardD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

BLS DAILY REPORT, MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1996

Part-time employment arrangements have many benefits for employers such as
increased staffing flexibility and lower costs, according to a survey of 102

U.S. and foreign companies by the Conference Board ....(Daily Report, page
A-5).

Spring gains in employment are expected to be lost or diminished during the
summer months, according to a BNA survey of 303 employers' projections for
the third quarter.  Hiring prospects will hold fairly steady during the
third quarter of 1996, but planned reductions-in-force and reports of
employees on layoff are both up from last quarter, reversing the direction
of these indicators from three months ago ....(Daily Labor Report, page
D-6).

A study that tracked 25,000 teenagers over six years has found that family
income counts more than race, ethnicity, sex, or scores on achievement tests

in determining the expectations and future education of the group.  The
conclusion is one from a study by the National Opinion Research Center at
the University of Chicago that focused on potential barriers to choice and
access in higher education ....(New York Times, page A11).

The Wall Street Journal lead editorial criticizes Wall Street economist,
Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley, who backs the AFL-CIO campaign "America
Needs a Raise" ....In its editorial, the Journal includes:  "Small
differences ... point to the real issue here:  There is trouble with the
data.  On the narrow issue of the Commerce updating, many economists note
that while Commerce reweighted some things, it failed to reweight others.
 Bob Barbera of Capital Investments International, a known anti-Roachist,
focuses on the bellwether measurement of U.S. technological advance,
something called `U.S. nonfarm multifactor productivity.'  That chart has
basically stayed flat at the level it achieved in 1977.  Believing this
means believing that technology has failed to benefit the country in any
discernible way since the days when back-room business still clicked to the
sound of the adding machine and most contact with computers was confined to
moments at the airline ticket counter.  There are also signs of difficulties

on a greater scale with our calculation of inflation.  The Bureau of Labor
Statistics says the Consumer Price Index overstates inflation by 0.1%,"
contents the Journal.  "But the Boskin Commission, a nonpartisan group
studying the question for the Senate Finance Committee, says the
overstatement is actually ten times that, one percentage point a year or
more.  And if we've been overrating inflation, we've been underrating
productivity, GDP -- and indeed workers pay ...."

The Wall Street Journal's "Technology" supplement, "Selling in Cyberspace,"
points out (page R26) that electronic commerce promises to free workers to
do more-productive, higher-paying work.  But it's going to hurt a lot of
employees along the way ....The big question isn't whether new technologies
destroy jobs, but whether they will give rise to an even greater number of
new jobs ....In this story, Stephen Roach is quoted as a believer in the
power of new technologies to benefit service providers who says "the
quickening rate of innovations related to the Internet and wireless
transmission of data is proof that the seeds are being planted for large
productivity gains in the service sector.  He argues that economists who say

services aren't becoming more productive are `full of baloney' ...."

DUE OUT TOMORROW:  Productivity and Costs -- First Quarter 1996 (Revised)