BLS DAILY REPORT, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2000
RELEASED TODAY: The Occupational Outlook Handbook has been the federal
government's premier career guidance publication for more than 50 years.
The Handbook provides comprehensive, up-to-date, and reliable labor market
information that has helped millions of Americans plan their future lives.
The 2000-01 edition of the Handbook will help guide workers into the new
century, presenting essential information about prospective changes in the
workplace and the qualifications that will be needed by tomorrow's
workforce. ...
__Mild weather in early January and a rebound in factory hiring helped to
account for a large gain of 387,000 in payroll employment outside of
agriculture during January, according to figures released by BLS. The
snapshot of the U.S. economy beginning the new year on such a vigorous note
surprised most economists, although many were skeptical about the size of
the gain because some new jobs resulted directly from more favorable weather
then typically prevails in January. The first significant hiring of Census
Bureau workers to conduct the decennial census this spring occurred in
January, accounting for 11,000 new federal government jobs. While the gains
moderated over the course of 1999, the 0.7 percent rise in average weekly
earnings reported for January was on the high end of recent increases,
renewing concern among some inflation-wary analysts who believe the Federal
Reserve Board cannot avoid more interest rate hikes in the near future. The
nation's civilian unemployment rate declined slightly to 4.0 percent in
January, the lowest reading since January 1970 when it was 3.9 percent. The
jobless rate has been below 4.5 percent since November 1998. ...
"Employment rose sharply over the month, in part reflecting a particularly
warm survey reference period that resulted in fewer layoffs in construction
and other weather-sensitive industries," BLS Commissioner Katharine Abraham
said during a Feb. 4 news briefing. ... (Pam Ginsbach in Daily Labor
Report, page D-1).
__Underscoring the strength of the American economic boom, the nation's
unemployment rate slipped to 4 percent, the lowest level in exactly 30
years. The survey of households showed a huge jump of 925,000 in the
civilian labor force -- people either with a job or actively looking for
one. Remarkably, virtually all of them found work. The boom has produced
so many job opportunities that many people who either could not get jobs in
the past, or chose not to look for them for some reason, are now looking for
and finding them, usually pretty quickly. For instance, half of the
nation's 5.7 million unemployed workers have been out of a job for less than
six weeks. ... (John M. Berry in Washington Post, Feb. 5, page E1)
__Far from easing off as the American economic expansion was becoming the
longest in history, the nation's employers added more jobs in January than
in any other single month in more than two years -- drawing in people who
had given up looking for work and easing the struggle of millions of workers
to make ends meet. The nation's employers created 387,000 new jobs in
January, more than in any single month since September 1997, when employees
of United Parcel Service, returning from a strike, swelled the count. The
debate is over whether it's a sign of inflation or stability or a
warm-weather fluke. The unemployment rate fell to 4 percent, the lowest
level in 30 years. It had been 4.1 percent since October. ... The average
hourly pay of the nation's nonsupervisory production workers--about 90
million people in a work force of 130.3 million last month--rose by 6 cents
in January, to $13.50 an hour. That represents an annual rise of just 3.5
percent, down from an annualized increase of 3.7 percent last fall. ...
(Louis Uchitelle in New York Times, Feb. 5, page A1).
U.S. Representative Lane Evans (D-Ill.) discusses legislation he has
introduced, "The Equity for Temporary Workers Act," in a Letter to the
Editor (Washington Post). In it, he says that, according to a recent Labor
Department [BLS] survey, "more than half of the temp workers employed by
help agencies had been on their current assignments for more than six
months." ...
The Japanese economy likely shrank in the final three months of last year,
dragging the nation back into recession, the head of the Japan's Economic
Planning Agency said. The expected economic growth in Japan's fourth
calendar quarter, from October to December, "will be a considerable minus"
because of sluggish consumer spending dampened by a sharp decline in last
year's winter bonuses to managers and workers." In Japan, bonuses make up a
significant portion of workers' income. The EPA said it will report its
official estimate for fourth-quarter economic growth next month. Japan's
economy contracted at an annualized rate of 3.8 percent in the
July-to-September quarter, reversing modest expansion in the first half of
the year. Among economists, two consecutive quarters of negative growth is
generally regarded as a recession. ... (Washington Post, page A5).
DUE OUT TOMORROW: Productivity and Costs, Fourth Quarter 1999(p)
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