BLS DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1997 The Labor Department announced a schedule for the release of databases under its new Occupational Information Network (O*NET) -- a system for collecting, classifying, and disseminating information about requirements and characteristics of occupations and workers. The network is intended as an automated replacement for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles ....According to the Labor Department, the database contains hundreds of "information units" that cover job requirements, worker attributes, and the content and context of work ....The first version of the database is expected out in December 1997 and will be made available to the general public ....By early 1998, the agency hopes to have O*NET products available on the Internet through America's Job Bank. The job bank's links to O*NET will include the most important aspects and requirements of occupations included on the database. After completing the test phase, the Labor Department hopes to have in place by 2000 a new, extended database that includes all occupations in the proposed new Standard Occupational Classification ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-8). U.S. trade deficit in goods and services narrowed to a better-than-expected seasonally adjusted $8.16 billion in June, with exports climbing to a record high and imports falling for the first time in eight months, the Commerce Department reported ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-1)_____The U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply, but the politically sensitive deficits with China and Japan both widened ...(Washington Post, page E3; Washington Times, page B9)_____The U.S. trade deficit narrowing indicates that the economy may be growing faster than analysts had assumed ....(New York Times, page D1; Wall Street Journal, page A2). The gap between the rich and the poor in 401(k) plans is growing, says The Wall Street Journal (page C1). A study released by KPMG Peat Marwick shows an enormous difference between participation rates among highly paid and lower-paid workers: 90 percent of highly paid employees contribute to their 401(k) plan, compared with only 64 percent of all workers with such plans ....The KPMG findings are remarkably consistent with the latest-available government figures, which show that 90 percent of people earning $75,000 or more participate in their company plan, compared with 67 percent of all workers offered such plans ....There's also a gap between the high-paid and low-paid when it comes to having a chance to contribute to a retirement plan in the first place. The Labor Department's 1993 Current Population Survey shows that 70 percent of the 2.2 million workers earning more than $75,000 are offered a plan, while only 10 percent of the 15 million workers earning under $10,000 are offered a savings plan. In between these two extremes, accessibility to retirement plans falls steadily with income .... Forty-two percent of companies of various sizes have telecommuting arrangements, according to a 1996 study of 305 American business executives by the Olsten Corporation, a Melville, N.Y., staffing services company. That figure is up from 33 percent in the 1995 study. But the companies surveyed said that only 7 percent of their employees ever telecommute -- a number that has held steady for four consecutive annual surveys ....A sociology professor at Illinois Institute of Technology and author of "Transition to Telecommuting" says there are two basic reasons why telecommuting has not taken hold to the extent anticipated: Employees have unrealistic expectations, and employers are afraid of losing control ....Dr. Charles Grantham, president, Institute for the Study of Distributed Work in Walnut Creek, Calif., bases his research on independent studies coupled with market data from BLS, according to The New York Times (Aug. 17, page F1). He breaks the numbers down this way: Some 9 to 14 million American workers are telecommuters, defined as those who work from their homes on a regular basis (at least 2 days a week) for an outside company. From 10 million to 12 million are home-based workers, or those who run businesses from home. Some 12 million to 16 million are independent contractors who work for multiple companies .... In an op-ed page column, "The Age of Leisure," George F. Will says that Robert Fogel, one of the University of Chicago's Nobel Prize-winning economists, estimates that, "since 1880, the time devoted each week by the average American male head of household to nonwork activities has risen from 10.5 hours to 40 hours, while time at work has been cut nearly in half, from 61.6 to 33.6" ....
