BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 2000
RELEASED TODAY: BLS reported revised fourth-quarter seasonally-adjusted
annual rates of productivity change -- as measured by output per hour of all
persons -- and revised annual changes for the full year 1999. Percent
changes in business and nonfarm business productivity in the fourth quarter
were 6.1 and 6.4 percent, respectively; the annual average changes for
1998-1999 were 3.1 percent in the business sector and 3.0 percent in the
nonfarm business sector. In both sectors, the fourth-quarter productivity
increases were the largest since the fourth quarter of 1992. ...
The average wage-benefit settlement for union construction workers in 2000
will be only slightly higher than the narrow range of moderate increases in
recent years, according to the Construction Labor Research Council
bargaining outlook. Based on the many increases already negotiated in
contracts covering the next two years, the projected wage-benefit increases
will average 3.6 percent in 2000 and 3.5 percent in 2001. Those projected
rates are slightly above the 3.3 percent average increase in new agreements
negotiated in 1999. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A-3).
Gasoline prices will continue to rise sharply, hitting an average of $1.56 a
gallon in the peak summer driving season, but they will come down by this
time next year, the Energy Department predicted. Because worldwide crude
oil supplies are so low, a steep increase in gasoline costs is unavoidable
in the near future even if oil-producing countries agree soon to increase
production significantly, the department's Energy Information Administration
said. ... But while gasoline prices will probably set records in purely
numerical terms, they will still be 40 percent lower when adjusted for
inflation than they were at their record high, in March 1981. And prices
will be 16 percent lower when adjusted for inflation than they were late in
1990, during the Persian Gulf war. ... (New York Times, page C1; USA Today,
page 1B).
As multinational companies continue moving their operations across borders
in search of cheaper labor, record numbers of workers are moving in the
opposite direction in search of better pay and higher standards of living, a
new report on global migration patterns has found. A review of recent
census reports from 152 countries determined there are about 120 million
migrants in the world now, including some refugees fleeing war or famine who
don't return to their homelands. That number is up from 75 million in 1965
and is expected to grow, the report said. The swell of migration is
creating a new $6 billion-a-year industry -- human trafficking -- as workers
from poor countries pay brokers for false documents or to smuggle them into
more desirable countries. "Workers Without Frontiers: The Impact of
Globalization on International Migration" was issued last week by the
International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency based in Geneva.
The biggest motivator for immigrants is a better economic life, author Peter
Stalker found. "In a world of winners and losers, the losers do not simply
disappear, they seek somewhere else to go," the British economic researcher
wrote. ... Labor costs for manufacturing -- where many immigrants are
employed -- are highest in European countries and lowest in Asia, while
China's costs have remained flat for many years. ... (Washington Post, page
E1).
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