[PEN-L:11436] FW: BLS Daily Report

[Richardson_D <Richardson_D@xxxxxxx>]

>BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1997
>
>RELEASED TODAY:  Sixty-five percent of 1996 high school graduates were
>attending colleges or universities by the fall.  This rate was an all-time
>high.  From 1992 to 1995, the enrollment rate was about 62 percent ....Nearly
>two-thirds of the 1996 high school graduates who were freshmen in college
>were enrolled in four-year institutions.  About two-fifths of them were
>combining school with some labor force activity.  In contrast, a much higher
>proportion (about three-fifths) of the youth enrolled in two-year colleges
>were in the labor force.  The labor force participation rate was 78.1 percent
>among the high school graduates who did not enroll in college in the fall of
>1996 ....
>
>After adjustment for inflation, the weekly median earnings of the nation's
>full-time wage and salary workers climbs 0.4 percent during the second
>quarter compared with a year earlier, according to BLS ....(Daily Labor
>Report, page D-1).
>
>New GDP numbers may well solve some major riddles ....The Commerce Department
>will release revised numbers next week that may show the economy has been
>forging ahead even faster than thought, adding almost a full percentage point
>to growth for the past two years ....On the one hand, faster growth would
>help solve some maddening economic puzzles.  The biggest one:  Why inflation
>has stayed so tame despite extremely low unemployment levels.  But for
>practical reasons, there's little reason to get excited.  Just because the
>economy has been growing faster doesn't mean it's in any more danger of
>fueling inflation ....Probably most important, it would show that
>productivity hasn't been as sorry as it has appeared during the past few
>years ....If productivity is revised upward, then unit labor costs would be
>reduced.  Probably, labor costs would be more consistent with inflation
>....(Wall Street Journal, page A2).
>
>New IRS statistics break down how much income individual taxpayers had to
>report for 1994 in order to rank in various income groups in the IRS's
>Statistics of Income Bulletin ....(Wall Street Journal, "Tax Report," page
>A1).
>
>Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, calling the U.S. economic
>performance "exceptional and better than most anticipated," said that growth
>has "moderated" for now, but cautioned that at some point the central bank
>will have to raise interest rates to keep inflation in check ....(Daily Labor
>Report, page A-12)_____Greenspan expects a strong economy through 1998.  His
>testimony to House panel fuels stock and bond markets' surge ....Greenspan
>cited several factors that may have contributed to allowing the nation to
>have a low 5 percent jobless rate without triggering large enough wage gains
>to add to inflation.  On his long list were technological improvements,
>deregulation of a number of industries, a surge in business investment that
>has boosted production capacity and productivity, a heightened sense of job
>insecurity among workers, a strong dollar that has lowered the cost of
>imported goods and services, changes that have reduced health care costs, and
>"the reduced market power of labor unions."  "Many of the forces are limited
>or temporary, and their effects can be expected to diminish, at which time
>cost and price pressures would tend to re-emerge," he warned.  But some of
>the changes, particularly technological developments, may have a more
>permanent impact ....The true constraint on the economy, he told the
>committee, is that the nation does not have enough people who don't have jobs
>to allow employment to continue to rise as rapidly as it has since the end of
>the 1990-91 recession ...."The unemployment rate has a downside limit if for
>no other reason than unemployment, in part, reflects voluntary periods of job
>search and other frictional unemployment," he said ....(Washington Post, page
>A1)_____Greenspan suggested that the central bank was inclined to leave
>interest rates steady for the time being, but he issued a gentle warning that
>the current combination of steady growth, low unemployment, and nonexistent
>inflation would not continue indefinitely ....His generally upbeat assessment
>of the economy dispersed lingering anxieties among investors that the Fed
>would raise rates next month, and the stock market soared in response
>....(New York Times, page A1)_____Greenspan gave no hint that an increase in
>interest rates is imminent, buoying the financial markets.  He hailed the
>current state of the economy as "exceptional," said the U.S. has "as close to
>stable prices as I've seen since the 1960s," and welcomed the recent slowing
>of economic growth ....(Wall Street Journal, page A2).
>
>Growing numbers of employers are using managed health care to cut costs and
>keep employees healthy and productive, according to the management consulting
>firm Hewitt Associates.  Of 1,050 employers surveyed, 89 percent had some
>sort of managed health initiative in place, up from 62 percent in 1992
>....(Daily Labor Report, page A-4).
>