BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, MARCH 3, 2000
RELEASED TODAY: The unemployment rate was little changed in February at 4.1
percent. Payroll employment edged up by 43,000, following a large increase
in January (384,000). Average hourly earnings increased by 4 cents over the
month and by 3.6 percent over the year. ...
The unemployment rate declined in 31 states and all four U.S. regions in
January, although the national jobless rate was essentially unchanged at 4
percent, BLS reported. ... "The Midwest, South, and West all recorded the
lowest rates in their series, while the Northeast nearly achieved a new
low," BLS said, noting that historical data for this series date back to
1976. ... Connecticut posted the lowest jobless rate of 2.2 percent,
followed by Missouri and South Dakota at 2.3 percent each. ... (Daily Labor
Report, page D-4).
The Commerce Department, hoping to keep from falling further behind the
curve of technological changes transforming the economy, unveiled a new
index to track e-commerce separately from its overall retail-sales figures.
The move is the government's first attempt to provide an indicator devoted
solely to tracking the online boom. But some analysts warned that further
refinements would be necessary to truly gauge the economic changes wrought
by the Internet, many of which are fairly difficult to track. ... Online
retail sales totaled $5.3 billion, 0.6 percent of overall retail sales from
October through the end of the year. ... Key points of the program are: (1)
The government is releasing the measure quarterly, with first-quarter
numbers due in May, though officials hope to eventually make it a monthly
index. (2) The measure doesn't include services, such as online financial
services, ticket companies, or travel agencies. By many measures, airline
tickets -- which aren't yet included in this report -- are the most popular
item sold online, amounting to billions of dollars a year. (3) Only goods
actually purchased online -- rather than through a Web site's 1-800 number,
for example -- are included in the figures. (4) The department will begin
releasing business-to-business e-commerce numbers early next year. ...
(Yochi J. Dreazen in Wall Street Journal, page A2)_____Despite rising
interest rates and oil prices, consumers continued their spending spree in
stores and on the Internet, two reports showed. Retail sales rose 5.1
percent in February, while a separate survey found that $5.3 billion worth
of goods and services were sold online in the fourth quarter of 1999. ...
(New York Times, page C1)
Retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Target, rang up stronger-than-expected sales
in February, overcoming higher interest rates, a roller-coaster stock
market, and steeper oil prices. ... (Wall Street Journal, page B6; New York
Times, page C6).
The number of seasonally adjusted new claims for unemployment insurance
benefits filed with state agencies rose by 6,000 to 275,000 in the week
ended Feb. 26, the Department of Labor's Employment and Training
Administration announced. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-2).
New home sales fell sharply in January due to higher interest rates. The
drop, though, is unlikely to deter the Fed from more rate increases. ...
(Wall Street Journal, page A2).
The composite index of leading economic indicators rose 0.3 percent in
January, indicating the economic expansion should continue through 2000, the
Conference Board reported. ... The leading index stands at 106.4 percent of
its 1996 base. Seven of the 10 indicators that comprise the leading index
rose in January. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-1).
Rather than reducing international migration, as might be expected by
ever-expanding worldwide trade, globalization, in the sense of widespread
international trade, will actually increase future migration pressures,
according to a book released by the International Labor Organization. The
flow of goods and capital between rich and poor countries will not be large
enough to offset the needs for employment in poorer countries, according to
Peter Stalker, author of the book Workers without Frontiers: The Impact of
Globalization on International Migration. Instead, more people are likely
to be "shaken loose" from their communities and encouraged to work abroad
because of social disruption caused by economic restructuring. ... (Daily
Labor Report, page A-3).
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