BLS Daily Report

[Richardson_D <Richardson_D@xxxxxxx>]

BLS DAILY REPORT, MONDAY, MARCH 30, 1998

U.S. manufacturing productivity rose 4.4 percent in 1996, less than in
the two previous years but more than the rates recorded in eight of 10
other countries.  Only in Japan and Germany did productivity rise faster
in 1996 that in the United States, BLS reports ....(Daily Labor Report,
page D-7).

Personal income rose by 0.6 percent in February, spurred by a sharp
increase in wages and salaries, the Department of Commerce's Bureau of
Economic Analysis reports ....(Daily Labor Report, page
D-1)_____Personal income and spending grew robustly, an indication that
consumers will continue to spur economic growth ....(New York Times,
March 28, page B2)_____ Americans received an income boost in February,
and did what most people would:  They spent it ....(Wall Street Journal,
page A2).

Support staff jobs are on the increase.  Traditionally, that term has
referred to clerks, receptionists, secretaries, and data entry workers,
but that category now includes computer operators, statistical clerks,
marketing and advertising assistants, information systems support
workers, and financial assistants.  And though openings for secretaries
- except for medical and legal secretaries - are fewer, the skills are
much in demand under the title of administrative assistant.  In 1996,
there were more than 24 million administrative, clerical, and support
staff workers, making up the country's largest major occupational group,
says Paul LaPorte of BLS in Chicago.  By 2006, there will be nearly 26
million such jobs.  LaPorte says jobs for billing and accounting clerks
will soar by 41.8 percent; for medical and legal secretaries, 31.7
percent; and for receptionists and information clerks, 29.7 percent
.....(Washington Post, March 29, page H15).

For every $1 a permanent, full-time worker earns, the average temporary
worker gets between 79 and 83 cents, a recent survey from the National
Association of Part-Time and Temporary Employees in Kansas reports
(Washington Post, March 29, page H15).

Equal work with less-equal perks, is the headline for an article in The
New York Times (page D1) that says that Microsoft leads the way in
filling jobs with "permatemps" ....They hold high-prestige,
high-technology jobs at Microsoft's plush campus.  They often do the
same work as Microsoft's permanent employees ....Yet they do not quality
for Microsoft's coveted stock options, and their health and vacation
benefits are pale imitations of those enjoyed by regular Microsoft
workers ....Microsoft 's temps may feel their contingent status more
keenly than other temps, largely because the software giant's well-known
policy of giving stock options to employees has made many of the temps'
co-workers millionaires, thanks to Microsoft's soaring stock prices
.....In 1986, the number of temps employed each day was 800,000, but,
according to the National Association of Temporary and Staffing
Services, the number soared to 2.5 million last year or about 2 percent
of the work force.  At least 200,000 of them are long-term temps.  By
some estimates, temps now represent at least 10 percent of the work
force at one-fifth of American corporations.  Managers argue that using
temps is idea for the modern market's demand for efficiency and
flexibility.  Many employees say it dovetails with their desire for
independence and for stimulating challenges ....

The Wall Street Journal's "Tracking the Economy" shows that nonfarm
payrolls for March, to be released Friday, are expected to go up
250,000.  The unemployment rate for March is expected to remain at 4.6
percent, the same as the February rate.

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