[PEN-L:2649] BLS Daily Report

[Richardson_D <Richardson_D@xxxxxxx>]

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BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1999

__The AFL-CIO, pointing to new statistics from BLS that show membership in
unions increased by more than 100,000 in 1998, says the organizing strategy
laid out by the federation's leadership more than three years ago is
working.  At the same time, the Organizing Director noted that the labor
movement is not growing enough to keep up with the economy's rate of job
growth, which was 2.2 million new jobs created in 1998.  According to the
BLS statistics, the number of U.S. workers belonging to unions in 1998 grew
from 16.1 million to 16.2 million, marking the first time in the last five
years that membership outpaced the previous year's total.  The density of
union membership in the workforce, however, decreased from 14.1 percent in
1997 to 13.9 percent in 1998. ...  (Daily Labor Report, page A13).
__BLS announced that union membership grew by 100,000 last year, after three
years of decline, causing the AFL-CIO to boast that its efforts to revive
organized labor were beginning to pay off. ...  (New York Times, page A20).
__The number of workers who belong to labor unions grew slightly last year,
the government said, but the percentage of unionized jobs continued to
decline. ...  Labor's biggest gains came among health-care workers, public
employees, and service workers.  It lost members in manufacturing and most
other private sectors. ...  (Wall Street Journal, page B2).

Health benefits costs rose 6.1 percent in 1998 - nearly twice as fast as the
medical component of the CPI, ending five years of nearly flat cost growth,
a survey of 4,181 U.S. employers by William M. Mercer shows.  The average
cost of covering active and retired employees rose to $4,164 in 1998, from
$3,924 in 1997, survey data showed.  The medical CPI increased 3.4 percent
in 1998. Employers predict their costs will rise even faster in 1999 with 72
percent of employers polled anticipating cost increases averaging 9 percent,
Mercer said. ...  (Daily Labor Report, page A-8).

Existing house sales set a record in 1998 for the third year in a row,
thanks to low mortgage rates, strong job growth, and a rising stock market.
Sales of existing single-family homes surged 13.5 percent to 4.79 million,
beating 1997's record high of 4.22 million, the National Association of
Realtors reported (Washington Post, page E6)_____Sales of existing
single-family homes jumped 3.1 percent in December from November, as a
strong economy, low mortgage rates, and warm weather spurred a flurry of
purchasers. ...  (Wall Street Journal, page A2)

The Supreme Court rejected the federal government's plan for using a
controversial counting method to estimate portions of the nation's
population in the 2000 Census, ruling in a case that carries enormous
political and economic consequences for communities around the country.  By
a 5 to 4 vote, the justices said federal law prevents the administration
from supplementing the Census Bureau's traditional procedure of trying to
reach every household with statistical estimates that would be used to
determine the nation's population and divide seats in Congress among the
states.  But beyond the crucial apportionment purpose of the census, the
court did not foreclose allowing "statistical sampling" for other important
purposes, such as the drawing of political boundaries within each state and
the allocation of federal funds for everything from road construction to
housing for the poor. ...  (Washington Post, page A1)_____Dealing a bitter
blow to Democratic hopes, the Supreme Court ruled today that the official
census for 2000, which will be used to apportion seats in the House of
Representatives, must be conducted by the traditional head count. ...  (New
York Times, page 1)_____In a political setback for the Clinton
administration, the Supreme Court limited the use of statistical sampling in
the 2000 census, a method that Democrats argued would help to account for
some minorities and others who historically have been hard to count. ...
(Wall Street Journal, page A2)


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