Daily Report

[Richardson_D <Richardson_D@xxxxxxx>]

BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1997:

The country's purchasing executives are optimistic about the economy for
1998, with expectations of higher revenues compared with 1997 and record
bullishness on manufacturing employment for the coming year, the
National Association of Purchasing Management says as it releases its
semiannual economic forecast.  Purchasers also expect a better Christmas
retail season this year, compared with 1996, but not as good as 1994,
NAPM reported.  They are also looking to invest heavily in capital
expenditures in 1998.  NAPM members named labor and benefit costs their
number one concern (13.9 percent) for next year, but only a small group
- about 4 percent - had any real worries about skilled labor shortages.
The head of the association's business survey panel says among
manufacturers, most of the job shortfalls are expected to be in
unskilled positions (Daily Labor Report, page A-5; The New York Times,
page D4; The Wall Street Journal, page A6; USA Today, page 3B).

The economy will create only half the new low-skilled jobs needed for
the nearly 1.3 million welfare recipients expected to enter the labor
market during 1997-98, an advocacy organization said in a report
"Welfare Reform:  The Jobs Aren't There" prepared by the Preamble Center
for Public Policy, a Washington, D.C. group that says it looks for
"progressive sustainable solutions" to serious economic and social
issues".  Union, environmental, and advocacy groups are among the
center's board members.

The Asian financial crisis has diminished the Fed's worries about
incipient inflation, Fed Vice Chairman Alice Rivlin said in a speech in
Zurich, Switzerland. "Inflation has been remarkably well contain," Mrs.
Rivlin said, despite "very tight labor markets" as reflected in the
November unemployment rate of 4.6 percent (The Wall Street Journal, page
A24).

Business Week (December 15, page 6) lists companies that have announced
plans to downsize, with the number of jobs to be laid off and the
percent of the workforce that involves.  The list is lead by Eastman
Kodak, with 10,000 (10 percent of all its workers) to be laid off, and
concludes with Apple Computer, with 4,100 to be laid off, 31 percent of
its workforce.  The data is attributed to Challenger, Gray & Christmas,
Chicago.  That firm says that marked gyrations and Asian troubles have
made some companies nervous.  Another factor:  Many waited until year
end to be sure they could get along with fewer bodies.

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