[PEN-L:372] BLS Daily Report

[Richardson_D <Richardson_D@xxxxxxx>]

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BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 1998

RELEASED TODAY:  In June, 213 of the 328 metropolitan areas recorded
unemployment rates below the U.S. average (4.7 percent, not seasonally
adjusted), while 106 areas had higher rates.  Of the nine areas that had
rates below 2.0 percent, seven were in the Midwest and two were in the
South.  Of the 14 areas with jobless rates of 10 percent or higher,
seven were in California and six were along the Mexican border in other
states....

Consumer confidence fell slightly in July, after reaching its highest
level in nearly three decades in June, the Conference Board reports....
"Job uneasiness, a major factor in consumer confidence, helped push down
consumer confidence in July," said the associate director of the board's
Consumer Research Center....  (Daily Labor Report, page
A-6)_____Analysts attributed the decline to a gyrating stock market and
concerns over a slowing economy and the possibility that jobs will be
harder to find....  (Washington Post, page C10)_____Consumer confidence
in the United States economy stuck close to a 30-year high in July,
buoyed by the powerful combination of benign inflation and an
unemployment rate close to a three-decade low.  Near-record levels of
confidence could lead to a burst of spending and that would increase
United States economic growth because consumer activity makes up
two-thirds of the economy.  "While consumers are not expecting economic
growth to accelerate, they are looking for business growth to continue
through the remainder of 1998," said the associate director of the
Conference Board's Consumer Research Center....  (New York Times, page
D8)_____Consumers expressed more uneasiness about the jobs picture in
July, but more optimism about earnings and business prospects, the
Conference Board reported....  (Wall Street Journal, page A4)

GAO has released a report finding that almost all medium and large
employers have access to health insurance for their workers, and more
than 90 percent offer coverage to their employees....  Although medium
and large employers had "nearly universal access" to health insurance,
about 10 percent of firms with 50 to 99 employees chose not to offer it
to their workers, a decision that may be influenced by what the
employers see as unfavorable or unaffordable premiums, according to
GAO....  (Daily Labor Report, page A-5).

General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative
agreement to settle the long-running strikes.  The proposed pact gives
GM assurances of labor peace and gives the union promises of more
investment in U.S. plants....  (Wall Street Journal, page A2; Daily
Labor Report, page AA-1)

Even in the midst of Internet mania, about half as many black and
Hispanic households own a personal computer as their white counterparts,
and about a third as many have on-line access - and the disparity is
growing.  A study released by the Commerce Department found that 19.3
percent of black households and 19.4 percent of Hispanic households own
a PC compared with 40.8 percent of white households....  As for the
Internet, 7.7 percent of black homes have on-line access, compared with
8.7 percent of Hispanics and 21.2 percent of white homes....  (Wall
Street Journal, page B12)

Wall Street securities firms have been doing their bull market empire
building abroad these days, says The Wall Street Journal (page C1)....
In the past three years, Wall Street securities firms have been adding
bankers, traders, and analysts to their payrolls, but, unlike the
expansion spree a little over a decade ago, the latest hiring binge is
taking place overseas.  "There's a lot of replacement hiring going on in
the States, but the incremental additional staffing is definitely
happening overseas," says the president of Whitney Group, which
specializes in Wall Street hiring....  The big gains in international
operations reflect not just hiring but a buying binge....  The overseas
buying has helped boost total securities industry employment to 289,380
at the end of the first quarter from 255,703 at the end of 1995,
according to the Securities Industry Association, Wall Street's main
trade group....  (Wall Street Journal, page C1).

DUE OUT TOMORROW: Employment Cost Index -- June 1998


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