BLS Daily Report

[Richardson_D <Richardson_D@xxxxxxx>]

> BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 2001:
>
> Initial claims filed with state agencies for unemployment insurance
> increased by a modest 8,000 to a total of 393,000 during the week ending
> August 18, according to the Employment and Training Administration.  The
> more closely watched 4-week moving average of initial UI claims -- that
> smooths fluctuations in the volatile weekly data -- showed an increase of
> 6,750 to a total of 378,750 for that period of time.  The insured
> unemployment rate was 2.5 percent for the week ended August 18, up 0.1
> percentage point from the prior week.  About a year ago, the rate stood at
> 1.7 percent (Daily Labor Report, page D-1; Bloomberg News, The New York
> Times, page C7; The Wall Street Journal, page A2).
>
> Even as layoff announcements rack up, national unemployment rates have
> held steady at 4.5 percent for 2 months. The Bureau of Labor Statistics
> reports that the median time it took most people to find new jobs in July
> was 6.7 weeks, only a few days longer than in March.  Forecasters say the
> labor market is near an equilibrium of firings and hirings -- even in
> light of signals that more workers are collecting jobless benefits in the
> slow-growing economy.  The Labor Department yesterday reported that new
> applications for unemployment insurance rose to 393,000 for the week ended
> August 18, an increase of 8,000.  The total number of workers receiving
> the benefits rose to 3.18 million as of August 11, compared with 3.08
> million a week before.  Economists said the national unemployment rate
> could rise modestly next month based on the data released yesterday, but
> they predicted it would still be well below 5 percent. Labor Department
> statistics indicate that the private sector lost a total of 162,000 jobs
> in May, June, and July -- offset somewhat by gains in government payrolls.
> Before March 2001, the economy had created new jobs steadily since late
> 1996. Workers are understandably concerned about whether the job cuts will
> eventually reach deeper.  But today's employment numbers are best
> understood in the context of the overall labor market, which grew
> dramatically in the last half of the 1990s as many people who had not
> previously worked or held temporary jobs entered the ranks of the
> full-time workforce.  For that reason alone, experts say this is a
> different kind of downturn  (The Washington Post, page E1).
>
> The Philadelphia Fed report shows that economists expect the unemployment
> rate to average 4.6 percent this year, higher than the previous projection
> of 4.5 percent.  The monthly rate has been either 4.5 percent or 4.4
> percent since April.  The rate will climb to 4.9 percent next year, the
> economists says (Bloomberg News, The New York Times, page C7).
>
> The average U.S. family earned $63,410 during the previous 12 months,
> according to Census 2000.  A breakdown of what the USA's 70.8 million
> families earned in the previous year as shown in a page 1A graph in USA
> Today shows:  22.0 percent earned between $50,000 and $74,999; 23.3
> percent earned between $15,000 and $34,999; 16.8 earned $35,000 to
> $49,999; 12.3 percent earned between $75,000 and $99,999; 10.4 percent
> earned less than $15,000;  9.7 percent earned between $100,000 and
> $149,999; and 5.5 percent earned $150,000 and over.
>
> Orders to American factories for big ticket manufactured goods fell in
> July for the third time in the last 4 months.  But in brighter news, sales
> of new homes last month surged by 4.9 percent, the biggest gain this year.
> The weakness in manufacturing continued to reflect slumping demand by
> businesses for new equipment.  This weakness, however, has been offset by
> continued strong consumer demand which so far has been enough to keep the
> yearlong economic slowdown from turning into a recession.  The Commerce
> Department said today that sales of new homes in July were up by the
> largest amount since a 13.5 percent increase last December.  The July
> increase followed a revised 2.8 percent sales gain in June and pushed
> sales of single-family homes to an annual rate of 950,000 last month
> (Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press,
> http://www.boston.com/dailynews/236/economy/Orders_for_big_ticket_manufact
> :.shtml).
>

<<application/ms-tnef>>