What I get from the information below is that the number was right (OK, perhaps there was a positive disturbance since it was so large) but that the Wall Street interpretation was wrong. Dave Richardson ---------- BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 1996 USA Today on page 1B, "Economists Say Fears Overblown," looked at the economy and the job figures and said that "part of last month's payroll jump was a recovery from January, when blizzards caused a loss of 188,000 jobs. Put the two months together, and you get average job growth of 259,000 -- strong, but not explosive" .... "States, Not Congress, Pioneer New Directions in Labor Law" was the title of an article in Sunday's Washington Post (page H5) by Frank Swoboda. Swoboda says that the annual survey of state labor law changes shows states dealing with a wide range of employment issues, from prevailing wages and equal employment law to employment testing and worker privacy. He analyses the summary of state legislative actions compiled by Richard Nelson, a DOL state standards adviser, that appears in the current issue of the Monthly Labor Review. While service wage rates remain well below those of other sectors, the gulf has narrowed in recent years, a study by the Commerce Department's Economics and Statistics Administration says (Daily Labor Report, pages 2,A-9). The report points to a February 1994 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland that found a dramatic improvement in wages for service sector jobs. In 1979, the median service wage was $82 less each week than the median manufacturing wage, the report said. By 1992, the difference had narrowed to $19. Also job growth appears to be faster in service industries with relatively high wages or in high wage job categories of traditionally low-wage industries, according to a BLS report released August 25, 1994 .....Less reassuring, ESA said, is whether service industries are functioning in the same way manufacturing industries once did to create well-paid jobs for employees with mid-level skills ..... What's the cost of a middle-class lifestyle these days? It depends on where you live, according to Runzheimer International, a relocation consulting company in Rochester, Wis. A standard lifestyle package -- including owning a 2,200-square-foot house; a new car and a second older car; federal, state, and local taxes; and normal goods and services for a family of four -- will annually set you back $77,754 in San Francisco, $60,007 in Miami, and $54,805 in Memphis. Small towns typically offer a better deal. That standard middle-class life can be arranged in Soda Springs, Idaho, for $52,409; in DeLand, Fla., for $53,416; or in Bucksport, Maine, for $55,968. You'll spend $65,715, or about l0 percent more than the national average in the Maryland suburbs.
