BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1997 RELEASED TODAY: Labor productivity -- as measured by output per hour -- increased from 1994 to 1995 in 69 percent of the industries measured by BLS ....Industries measured were in manufacturing; transportation, communications, and utilities; trade; finance and services; and mining. Two new industries were included -- mobile homes and the U.S. Postal Service. Prices of goods imported into the United States declined for the third straight month in March, falling by 1.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, BLS reports ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-1). Using an experimental geometric mean index, BLS found that the CPI rose 0.3 percentage point less than the official price index in the year ended in March, the agency reports. BLS is likely to change parts of the CPI to a geometric mean approach after studying the results of its new experimental index over the rest of the year. Data will be released monthly, one week after the official CPI figures are published. If the agency decides to switch to a geometric mean method of calculating price changes, it has said it will not do so until early 1999, with notice to data users about such plans ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-3). Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss) told reporters that administration officials and budget committee chairmen "are within striking distrance" of reaching an agreement to balance the budget and should move swiftly to finalize the deal ....As negotiators try to hammer out the broad outlines of a budget deal with the administration, several Senate Republicans issued a warning not to sacrifice key GOP principles for the sake of an agreement. Included was "No legislative fix to the Consumer Price Index" ....The warning was in the form of a letter signed by Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex) and others. Gramm was particularly concerned about the possibility of budget negotiators reaching an agreement to reduce the CPI and using the resulting savings to boost funding for discretionary programs. Gramm said the CPI issue is "100 percent politically driven". He added that efforts to reduce the index are not being considered for the sake of accuracy as politicians claim, but for extra money to help boost spending for discretionary programs ....A CPI adjustment should be made outside of the budget talks by technicians at BLS or a commission comprised of nobel laureates, Gramm and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan) said (Daily Labor Report, page A-11; New York Times, page A1). Employment-based immigration rose significantly in fiscal year 1996, jumping from slightly more than 85,000 a year earlier to 117,499, the Immigration and Naturalization Service reports. The 38 percent increase brought the number of employment-based visas within 22,500 of the 140,000 annual cap on job-related immigration. INS says petitions for employment-based visas increased 20 percent between FY 1995 and 1996. INS reported earlier that employment-based immigration declined 16.1 percent in fiscal year 1994. The primary reason was a lack of demand for available visas. Fiscal year 1994 was the first time the new provisions of the immigration law reflected the true demand for professionals with advanced degrees ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-9). USA Today includes a page 1A graph that shows a changing pattern in health benefits. Change in enrollment of active employees in benefit plans by type of plan since 1993 are: preferred provider network -- 31 percent in 1996 compared with 27 percent in 1993; HMO -- 27 percent in 1996 compared with 19 percent in 1993; fee-for-service -- 23 percent in 1996 compared with 48 percent in 1993; and managed care with gatekeeper -- 19 percent in 1996 compared with 7 percent in 1993. Source of the data is a Foster Higgins National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans.
