---------- From: Hoyle_K Sent: Thursday, January 09, 1997 5:30 PM To: DailyReport Subject: BLS Daily Report BLS DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1997 RELEASED TODAY: The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods advanced 0.5 percent in December, following increases of 0.4 percent in both November and October ....The index for finished energy goods rose 3.1 percent, following a 2.3 percent rise in the prior month. Prices for finished goods other than foods and energy increased 0.1 percent, following a similar rise a month ago. The index for finished consumer foods fell 0.1 percent, the same as in November .... Nonfarm payroll employment rose in 40 states and in Washington, D.C., in November, with Nevada reporting the largest percentage increase, BLS reports ....The unemployment rate for most states changed little in November ....(Daily Labor Report, pages 2,D-1). "New Math, Same Story" is the title of an article by Paul R. Krugman, professor of economics at MIT, in Sunday's New York Times Magazine (page 32). Krugman says, "We can't change history with a happy new statistical formula. Whatever the measure, workers are still losing out ....The overwhelming evidence of a huge increase in income inequality in American has nothing to do with price indexes ...." "Trendlines" presents "Multinationals' Motives ... New Arguments on Going Global" by Paul Blustein (Washington Post, page E1). Blustein writes, "Multinational corporations are often criticized for firing U.S. workers and moving to low-wage foreign countries. But Commerce Department figures show that the majority of their overseas production is concentrated in high-income nations, indicating that foreign investment is motivated more by market access concerns rather than a desire for cheap labor ...." Corporate job cut announcements declined in the last half of 1996 in the United States and were down 32 percent in December from a year ago, said Challenger, Gray & Christmas. But for all of last year, job cut announcements rose 8.5 percent ....(Washington Post, page E1). Consumer debt rose at an annual rate of 7.4 percent in November, the fastest pace in four months, the Federal Reserve reported, providing further evidence that consumer spending rebounded at the end of the year after a summer lull. Much of the rise came in the category that includes credit cards ....(Washington Post, page E1)_____Analysts said people were still exercising more control than earlier in 1996 ....(Wall Street Journal, page A2). DUE OUT TOMORROW: The Employment Situation: December 1996
