BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2000
RELEASED TODAY: In February, 210 metropolitan areas recorded unemployment
rates below the U.S. average, while 114 areas registered higher rates.
Eleven metropolitan areas had rates below 2.0 percent, with five of these
located in the Midwest and four in the South. Of the 11 areas with jobless
rates over 10.0 percent, 7 were in California, and 3 were along the Mexican
border in other states. ...
Factory activity continued to grow in March, but at a slower rate than in
February, the National Association of Purchasing Management announced.
Rising prices continue to trouble purchasing management surveyed for the
report. The chairman of the NAPM Manufacturing Business Survey Committee
said the slowing rate of growth could be beneficial because it could lessen
price pressures. March marked the 14h consecutive month that manufacturing
activity grew and the 107th month in a row that the economy continued to
expand. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A-2)_____Manufacturing activity
expanded for a 14th straight month in March, while rising costs for oil and
other raw materials pushed an index of prices paid by factories to its
highest level in 5 years. Construction spending rose 1.5 percent in
February, to a record annual rate, a separate Commerce Department showed.
Together, the reports added to evidence that five Federal Reserve interest
rate increases since June have yet to brake growth, analysts say ...
(Washington Post, page E5; New York Times, page C18)_____The economy
continued to push ahead as manufacturing grew at a strong pace in March and
construction spending in February rose for the fifth month in a row. Policy
makers are looking for any signs of a substantial slowdown in the economy
from the fourth quarter's blazing 7.3 percent annual rate. Economists
believe the rate-sensitive construction market would be among the first to
feel the effects of the Fed's campaign. But February's data ran contrary to
that expectation. ... (Wall Street Journal, page A2)
When both imports and exports are taken into account, trade has had a
negative effect on economic growth and job creation, according to a brief of
the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research organization. ... Robert
E. Scott, author of the brief, examined the rise of real gross domestic
product between 1992 and 1999 and the four components of the economy that
contributed to this rise: personal consumption expenditures, gross private
domestic investment, international trade (net exports), and government
expenditures. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A-3).
Workplace violence ranked No. 1 as a security concern, by an even higher
margin than last year, with more than 280 large company security officials
surveyed by Pinkerton, a security services firm. Concerns about Internet
and other computer security issues climbed to second from seventh place
(Wall Street Journal "Work Week" feature, page A1).
Treasurys ended moderately higher as a plunge in technology stocks sent
investors scrambling for safer harbors, including government securities.
But volume was low, and bond sales were capped by fears that the Labor
Department's monthly report on employment trends, due Friday, may show
substantial job growth. ... (Wall Street Journal's "Credit Markets"
feature, page C24).
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