[PEN-L:11434] FW: BLS Daily Report

[Richardson_D <Richardson_D@xxxxxxx>]

>BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, JULY 22, 1997
>
>RELEASED TODAY:  Median weekly earnings of the nation's 93.4 million
>full-time wage and salary workers were $499 in the second quarter of 1997.
>This was 2.7 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 2.3
>percent in the CPI-U over the same period ....
>
>Inflation, believed in terminal condition, could soon emerge from its deep
>sleep, writes Peter Passell in the New York Times (page A1).  While hardly
>anybody is predicting apocalypse soon, there is reason to believe that
>unemployment is already below the rate consistent with price stability,
>according to Passell ....Robert Gordon, a specialist on inflation at
>Northwestern University, warned, for example, that wage increases are being
>disguised as promotions.  "It will take at least a year to see it happening,"
>he said.  Inflation's prospects are also being bolstered by the likely end to
>the set of conditions that have helped hold it in check, such as the low
>price of oil and the strong dollar, which has kept imports inexpensive ....
>
>Eroding customer service -- blamed in the past on layoffs and cost-cutting
>efforts -- has been getting even worse in a time of low unemployment.  In
>many areas, companies either go short-staffed or hire less-qualified workers,
>says USA Today (page 1B) ....A companion story reports that the tight labor
>market has companies scrambling to find employees, sometimes canvassing
>junior high schools for future workers ....
>
>Wage gains remain at 3 percent across all industries under contracts
>negotiated in the first six months of 1997, the same as that negotiated
>during the first six months of 1996, according to data compiled by BNA
>....(Daily Labor Report, page D-1).
>
>DUE OUT TOMORROW:  College Enrollment and Work Activity of 1996 High School
>Graduates
>