BLS DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1997 RELEASED TODAY: The average annual pay of all workers covered by State and Federal Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs was $28,945 in 1996, a 3.9 percent increase over the 1995 national average, according to preliminary data. The annual pay of private industry workers, who comprise 84.2 percent of the nation's employment, rose 4.2 percent in 1996, while pay for government workers rose 3.1 percent. Pay growth in the private sector outpaced that of government workers for the second straight year. In 1995, the increase in pay for private sector employees was 3.6 percent and for government workers, 2.6 .... BLS reports that there were 1,113 mass layoffs in June, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month. June's layoffs were a little more than the 1,056 recorded in May. In June 1996, BLS estimates there were 914 mass layoffs ....The mass layoff estimates are drawn from a relatively new data series, which has grown in fits and starts due to changing funding levels. BLS receives the raw data that eventually goes into this release on the 15th day of each month. The agency eventually hopes to reduce the turnaround time to about four weeks from receipt of data to release of the monthly layoff report (Daily Labor Report, page D-1). The strike against United Parcel Services is long over, but the debate rages on over the widespread use of part-time workers, an increasingly contentious issue in a variety of workplaces. Some 22 million U.S. workers hold part-time jobs, according to BLS statistics, with about 18 percent of them wanting full-time work. Labor advocates contend that part-time employment is often involuntary, that it allows employers to save on compensation costs at the expense of workers, and that it can create an unfair two-tier wage system. Defenders of part-time jobs point out that the vast majority of part-time workers are in such arrangements voluntarily because of the flexibility ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-3). If the U.S. economy is still growing when Christmas rolls around next year, the current economic expansion will have stretched for 92 months, making it the longest episode of peacetime growth in U.S. history, says John M. Berry, writing in the Washington Post (page E1) ....The long economic expansions of the 1960s and 1980s ultimately ended when inflation rose and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to bring it under control again. With the current expansion now 78 months old and increases in core inflation falling, many forecasters see no reason to predict growth will end anytime soon ....There is a long list of reasons economists have for the persistence of low inflation, including the Fed's determination to keep it low; good federal fiscal policy with falling budget deficits; increased competition in many markets, particularly from foreign firms; less government regulations; slow growth in Japan, Europe and many other nations, which has reduced world demand for many commodities; faster productivity growth; and fear among workers that, if they seek big pay increases, that they might lose their jobs .... A new study from the Economic Policy Institute and the Women's Research & Education Institute offers a look at what the authors call "nonstandard work arrangements." The report's most striking statistics is the prevalence of nonstandard work ....Thirty-four percent of female and 25 percent of male workers were not in regular full-time jobs ....(Business Week, Sept. 15, page 28). A commentary by Seymour Zucker, senior editor of Business Week (Sept. 15, page 37), says that Alan Greenspan, Fed Chairman, believes that government statisticians have failed to measure productivity gains in the service sector. "The nonfarm productivity data," Greenspan said in an interview, "are nonsense" ...._____Business Week's editorial (page 138) is "The Government Should Learn To Count." After criticizing other figures, including the CPI, it moves on to "the roaring debate over the productivity figures" ....The conclusion is that "Congress, for its part, must invest in statistics ....This is one area where penny-pinching is self-destructive .... DUE OUT TOMORROW: Producer Price Indexes -- August 1997
