BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1997
RELEASED TODAY: In June 1997, there were 1,113 mass layoff actions by
employers as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits
during the month. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a
single establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 110,267
persons. Both layoff events and the number of claimants for
unemployment insurance were higher than in June 1996 ....
_____Productivity in the nation's nonfarm business sector grew by a
brisk 2.7 percent in the second quarter, much more than the 0.6 percent
that was first estimated, reports BLS. The brisk productivity gain
reflects the recently announced large revision in growth of total U.S.
output. The robust productivity gain kept unit labor costs subdued
....(Daily Labor Report, page D-1).
_____The nation's businesses scored a big gain in efficiency in the
April-June period, allowing them to keep a lid on inflation and improve
their profit margins. The 2.7 percent annual rise was the largest such
gain for a quarter in three years ....A set of even more robust
productivity figures gets around the measurement problems associated
with financial services by excluding that part of the economy.
Noncorporate businesses, nonprofit organizations, and the portion of
government included in the nonfarm business calculations are also
dropped. In this nonfinancial corporate sector of the economy -- which
accounts for nearly 55 percent of GDP -- productivity rose at a very
strong 3.2 percent annual rate in the second quarter. Over the past
year, the sector's gain was 2.4 percent, double that reported for the
larger nonfarm business part of the economy ....(John M. Berry,
Washington Post, page D9).
_____The productivity of American workers was much higher in the second
quarter than originally estimated. But both sides in a growing debate
over the efficiency of the nation's workforce saw support for their
viewpoints in the new figures ....Productivity has spurted upward
before, only to die away. Lasting trends, up or down, become evident
only in hindsight, after several years of accumulated data. "I don't
see an argument for saying that the last few quarters are markedly
different from the 1980's or 1990's so far," said Edwin Dean, chief ot
the BLS division that compiles the productivity numbers. "They are just
a shade better." (Louis Uchitelle, New York Times, page D1).
_____U.S. workers were more productive than originally thought in the
second quarter, helping explain why the economy grew at a healthy pace
without sparking inflation ....The fact that one revision completely
changes the productivity picture illustrates just how volatile and
misleading the report can be, some economists said ....(Christina Duff,
Wall Street Journal, page A2).
The World Bank forecast that growth in developing countries would
accelerate over the next decade and that the five biggest emerging
economies -- China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, and Russia -- would become
economic powerhouses in the next quarter century ....(New York Times,
page D7).
DUE OUT TOMORROW: Average Annual Pay by State and Industry, 1996
