BLS Daily Report

[Richardson_D <Richardson_D@xxxxxxx>]

BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1997

A new comprehensive set of wage data released by BLS shows average
hourly pay for more than 760 occupations across United States
industries.  This first report is based on BLS' redesigned Occupational
Employment Survey, which for many years has been the source of job
information at both the national and state level.  BLS says that the
majority of managerial and professional occupations have average (mean)
wage rates in the upper ranges, while a majority of service and
agricultural occupations have wage rates in the lower ranges.  Lawyers,
who are included in the broad category of professional,
paraprofessional, and technical occupations, earned an hourly average
wage of $33.71 in 1996, with a median of $33.94 ....(Daily Labor Report,
page D-10).  

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 5,000 to a seasonally
adjusted 319,000 in the week ended Dec. 13, the Labor Department's
Employment and Training Administration reports ....(Daily Labor Report,
page D-1)_____The low level of claims indicates that the job market
remains tight.  Analysts expect the tight labor market to continue
through next month, according to a Chase Manhattan economist, who also
predicts the December unemployment rate will edge down to 4.5 percent
from last month's 24-year low of 4.6 percent ....(Wall Street Journal,
page B6).  

The National Association of Manufacturers does not expect the financial
crisis in Asia to cause widespread job layoffs, but association members
surveyed Dec. 11 predict the so-called "Asian flu" will cause a
considerable U.S. economic slowdown, NAM President Jerry Jasinowski says
.....The respondents were unanimous that there would be no inflationary
pressure from employment costs, with 80 percent expecting wages to
increase at about the same pace in 1998 as in 1997.  The Employment Cost
Index, the government's most comprehensive data series on compensation,
wages and salaries, rose 3.5 percent in the 12 months ended in
September.  "The case against inflation is further made by unexpectedly
robust estimates of productivity, especially in manufacturing, where
third quarter productivity increased at an astonishing 9.3 percent,"
Jasinowski said ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-1; Wall Street Journal,
page A2). 

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services narrowed 13.7 percent in
October, as exports rose while imports were nearly flat, the Commerce
Department says ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-3)_____Record exports
helped offset rising imports.  The U.S. deficit with Japan, however,
reached a 2½-year high.  Analysts expect bigger deficits with all Asian
countries next year as the U.S. economy feels the effects of Asia's
financial crisis (Washington Post, page G1)_____The shrinking of the
U.S. trade deficit with the world may be the calm before the storm.
Enjoy it while it lasts, economists say, because it's only a matter of
time before Asia's financial crisis causes the deficit to balloon.
Imports are expected to pour in, as the U.S., snaps up Asian goods at
fire sale prices, the result of currency devaluations.  At the same
time, faltering economies in Asia will leave those countries unable to
buy as many U.S. exports ....(Wall Street Journal, page A2; New York
Times, page C1).

Electricity prices are expected to drop over the next two decades amid
greater competition and falling production costs, the Energy Department
said.  DOE's Energy Information Administration estimates the average
retail price of electricity will decline 20 percent between 1996 and
2020 (Washington Post, page G2).  

When Fed officials met in a policymaking session Nov. 12, they were much
more concerned that tight labor markets might trigger a new round of
inflation than that the economic turmoil in a number of Asian nations
might sharply slow U.S. economic growth, according to minutes of the
meeting.  Nevertheless, the officials decided not to raise short-term
interest rates because the problems in Asia had left financial markets
"skittish," and a move to higher rates "risked an oversized reaction"
from those markets, the minutes said ....(Washington Post, page G2; New
York Times, page C1).

After rising precipitously in the 1980s, costs and payments for workers'
compensation programs have declined for the first time in decades,
according to a new study by the District-based National Academy of
Social Insurance.  The declines have come about as the nation's
workplaces have become safer, experts agree.  But changes in state laws
governing who qualifies for workers' compensation and the amount and
type of medical care they receive are also a factor in the decline, said
the group of business, labor, and academic exports which coordinated the
study ....(Washington Post, page G3). 

With unemployment at a 24-year low, Census officials are afraid that it
will be tough to find part-time workers to do the counting for Census
2000.  The job is part-time for only six weeks and will begin as early
as spring 1998. The agency is trying to lure Census counters by raising
salaries up to $14 an hour ....In 1990, the last time the Census was
conducted, the bureau hired more than 550,000 people for 302,000 jobs
.....(USA Today, page 3A).

The introduction of stringent air quality regulations did not lead to
net job losses, according to a study by the Employment Policy Institute,
a Washington, D.C.-based research organization ....(Daily Labor Report,
page A-7).

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