[PEN-L:847] BLS Daily Report

[Richardson_D <Richardson_D@xxxxxxx>]

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BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1998

RELEASED TODAY:  The preliminary seasonally adjusted annual rates of
productivity change in the second quarter were -0.6 percent in the
business sector and -0.2 percent in the nonfarm business sector.  In
both the business and nonfarm business sectors, the decline in
productivity growth in the second quarter was the first since the first
quarter of 1995.  In the first quarter of 1998, output per hour of all
persons (as revised) rose 4.1 percent in the business sector and 3.5
percent in the nonfarm business sector.  In manufacturing, productivity
changes in the second quarter were 3.3 percent in manufacturing, 5.7
percent in durable goods manufacturing, and 0.2 percent in nondurable
goods manufacturing....

In response to recent tax law changes, more employers are expected to
add commuting subsidies to the list of benefits provided to employees on
a salary-reduction basis.  The tax status of qualified fringe benefits,
such as transit and van-pooling, changed under the Transportation Equity
for the 21st Century Act....  Included is a provision that amends the
Internal Revenue Code to allow employers to offer transit and van-pool
benefits in place of payable compensation for taxable years beginning
after Dec. 31, 1998.  That means employees can elect to have before-tax
money deducted from their paychecks to pay for transit passes, tokens,
or van-pool reimbursements....  (Daily Labor Report, page A-5).

Asian women and those of Pacific Island descent are the least likely of
all American females to be unemployed, says BLS.  Only 4.4 percent of
them were unemployed in 1996, says BLS, compared with 4.7 percent of
white women, 10 percent of black women, and 10.2 percent of Hispanic
women ("Work Week," Wall Street Journal, page A1).

As the Asian economic crisis deepens and the contagion spreads to Latin
America and elsewhere, a major problem of the world economy is growing
ever clearer:  too many producers and too little consumer demand.
Beleaguered makers of cars, clothes, and computer chips are looking for
buyers anywhere and everywhere, at almost any price.  Amid the turmoil,
the U.S. consumer is emerging as a savior of sorts, says The Wall Street
Journal (page A1).  Americans are still buying American-produced goods
and services, of course, but, with so many countries skittish about
their own spending but looking for markets, the U.S. is increasingly
playing an important role:  the big importer....

The 1998 median salary for economics professionals is a record $80,000,
up 9.5 percent from 1996, says the National Association for Business
Economics ("Work Week," Wall Street Journal, page A1).

DUE OUT TOMORROW:  National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 1997


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