BLS Daily report

[Richardson_D <Richardson_D@xxxxxxx>]

> BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2000:	
>
> RELEASED TODAY:  In 2000, the labor productivity growth rate for
> manufacturing was the highest in the United States among the 10 countries
> for which comparable data were available, according to preliminary data
> from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The labor productivity increase in
> the United States was 7.1 percent, followed by 6.0 and 5.8 percent in
> Germany and France, respectively.  The productivity growth rates in Canada
> and Norway were the lowest among the countries compared.
>
> Both the number of mass layoff events and the total number of workers
> losing their jobs climbed again in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
> reports. A total of 2,108 mass layoff actions were reported in July by
> employers whose workers filed for unemployment insurance benefits through
> state agencies.  These layoff events involved a total of 271,308 people
> who lost their jobs either permanently or temporarily for a variety of
> reasons (Daily Labor Report, page D-7).
>
> The layoffs just keep on coming. And the newly jobless -- threatening to
> top an eyepopping 1 million by yearend -- could be the final push that
> sends the nation's economy over the brink and into recession, economists
> said.  "Layoffs are the single largest factor affecting consumer
> confidence," says the consumer economist for Economy.com.  And consumer
> spending flattened in July.  While U.S. personal income rose in July 0.5
> percent from June, the Commerce Department reports that consumer spending
> rose only 0.1 percent (http://www.nypost.com/business/31923.htm).
>
> New Unemployment Insurance claims filed with state agencies declined by
> 1,000 to 399,000 during the week ended August 25, the Employment and
> Training Administration says.  ETA's latest figures also showed that the
> more closely watched 4-week moving average of initial UI claims -- that
> smooths fluctuations in the volatile weekly data -- showed an increase of
> 12,500 to a total of 393,000 for the period ending August 25.  ETA said
> the 4-week moving average is much higher than a year earlier, when the
> total stood at 313,250 (Daily Labor Report, page D-12).
>
> Personal income rose 0.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in July,
> according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  Although encouraged by the
> healthy income gains in recent months, analysts were concerned about an
> abrupt slowdown in consumer spending shown for July.  Personal consumption
> expenditures -- comprising about two-thirds of total domestic output --
> edged up 0.1 percent in July, down from a 0.5 percent gain in June.  The
> relatively strong income gain last month bodes well for spending this
> fall, forecasters said, as they tried to gauge the likely effects of tax
> rebates on the sluggish economy.  Evidence of a likely bounce from
> household spending is most obvious in the BEA's figures on disposable
> personal income, which rose 1.7 percent in July (Daily Labor Report, page
> D-1; The New York Times, page C2).
>
> Demand for labor remained unchanged in July, holding steady at 58 on the
> Conference Board's help-wanted index. The number is down 24 percentage
> points compared with July 2000, the Conference Board said.  Help-wanted
> advertisements declined in the last 3-months in all nine U.S. regions, the
> report noted.  The steepest declines, 21 percent, occurred in the West
> North Central region, which covers Kansas City, Mo., Minneapolis, Omaha,
> Neb., and St. Louis.  Over the past 12 months, most of the nation
> experienced a loss in advertising volume (Daily Labor Report, page A-3).
>
> Orders to U.S. factories increased slightly in July, led by increases in
> demand for automobiles and other transportation products, furniture,
> household appliances and communications equipment.  The Commerce
> Department reports that factory orders were up by a bigger-than-expected
> 0.1 percent.  That followed a revised 2.9 percent drop in June, weaker
> than the government previously estimated.  New orders so far this year are
> 6.8 percent below the same period last year. Consumer spending just about
> flattened in July, posting only a 0.1 percent increase even as shopper
> started receiving the first tax-rebate checks (Leigh Strope, Associated
> Press http://www.nypost.com/apstories/V4180.htm).
>
> Labor Day has become a bittersweet holiday, a final celebration of
> barbecue, beach and freedom from school.  But it is no longer a day off
> for many of the workers it was designed to honor, writes Angela Stanton,
> Scripps Howard News Service
> (http://www.nandotimes.com/business/story/70760p-1001444c.html). Despite
> union efforts to focus on the achievements of the labor movement, legions
> of American workers will spend the day ringing up sales and straightening
> racks messed up by customers eager to take advantage of the big sales
> events that are routinely offered during the first week in September.  The
> Retail Federation estimates that one of five American workers has a job in
> the retail industry -- 20 million workers.
>
> The booming late 1990's appear to have left the middle class in the New
> York and California regions no better off than it was a decade before, an
> analysis of Census Bureau data suggests.  The poor get a little poorer,
> the rich get a lot richer and the large group in the middle emerged
> slightly worse off than when the decade began.  The analysis, conducted
> for the New York Times, compared income data from the 1990 census with
> data from an experimental Census Bureau survey done in 2000.  It found
> that the median family income clearly declined in New York, California,
> Connecticut and in Washington, D.C. Andrew A. Beveridge, a professor of
> sociology at Queens College who conducted the analysis, said he also found
> that the gap between the rich and the poor throughout the country had
> inched wider during the 1990's.  In Washington, D.C., for example, the
> average income of families in the wealthiest fifth of the population, once
> adjusted for inflation, grew to 24 times the average in the bottom fifth.
> Says Beveridge "...you have this squeeze in the middle --- people like
> cops, firemen, people making under $80,000 a year" (The New York Times,
> page A1).
>
> One of the good things about getting old used to be the discounts --10
> percent off a hotel room here, a few dollars off dinner there. But as the
> 50-plus crowd swells, some companies are trimming those perks or ditching
> them altogether.  One in every five Americans is 55 years or older, and
> their ranks are growing fast.  They are more active than ever, and have a
> higher net worth than any other age group.  A lot of companies are asking:
> Why should they be pampered? (The Wall Street Journal, page A1).
>

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