[PEN-L:11473] FW: BLS Daily Report

[Richardson_D <Richardson_D@xxxxxxx>]

>BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, JULY 25, 1997
>
>RELEASED TODAY:  Retirement plan participation by employees in medium and
>large private establishments (those with 100 workers or more) has remained
>fairly constant, but there has been a shift in the types of plans providing
>coverage, according to a 1995 survey by BLS.  In 1995, 80 percent of
>full-time employees in medium and large private establishments participated
>in one or more retirement income plans, up from the 78 percent reported in
>1993.  In 1995, 52 percent of all full-time workers participated in defined
>benefit plans, which use predetermined formulas to calculate retirement
>benefits, down from 56 percent in 1993.  On the other hand, 55 percent of all
>full-time workers participated in defined contribution plans, which specify
>the employer's contribution but not the eventual benefit, up from 49 percent
>in 1993 ....
>
>The proportion of high school graduates across the U.S. that attends college
>rose to an all-time record of 65 percent in the fall of 1996, BLS reports in
>data tracing the college and workforce status of high school graduates
>....(Daily Labor Report, July 24, page D-1).
>
>The experimental geometric mean version of the CPI rose by 2.0 percent over
>the year ended in June, maintaining the pattern of divergence with the
>official CPI, according to data released by BLS.  By comparison, the official
>CPI-U increased 2.3 percent between June 1996 and June 1997.  A second
>experimental CPI, which is a recalculation of the official CPI-U using the
>same arithmetic average method of calculating price change, also showed a 2.3
>percent rise over the year ended in June ....(Daily Labor Report, July 24,
>page A-11).
>
>Cereal prices dropped in 1996 after years of rising faster than the rate of
>inflation, Reps. Sam Gejdenson (D-Conn) and Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said
>in their third annual report on the cost of breakfast cereals ....(Washington
>Post, page G1).
>
>Despite a continuing decline in job-related ailments among most American
>workers, legions of nursing-home aides keep coming down with painful back
>sprains and other injuries.  In a federal job-safety ranking released last
>month, nursing homes came out as the 12th most hazardous industry among the
>more than 300 businesses tracked.  That's worse than any of the construction
>fields and is in roughly the same category as shipbuilders and truck drivers
>....The main hazard to workers in the nursing-home field involves lifting or
>moving patients ....(Los Angeles Times, July 25).
>
>The number of people filing initial claims for unemployment insurance
>benefits dropped by 42,000 during the week ended July 19 to a seasonally
>adjusted 299,000, DOL says ....(Daily Labor Report, July 25, page D-1; USA
>Today, page 1B).
>
>