BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1997 Initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits decreased by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 306,000 in the week ended Sept. 13, the Labor Department reports ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-8)_____The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly in the latest week, providing more evidence of a persistent tightness in the labor market ....(New York Times, page C16). The recent upswing in employment prospects will gain momentum during the autumn months, according to projections from 311 respondents to BNA's latest quarterly employment survey. Job opportunities -- which have increased gradually since the spring -- likely will rise substantially during October, November, and December. Workforce reduction plans are down from three months ago. Just 5 percent of responding employers expect to eliminate technical/professional or office/clerical jobs during the last three months of the year ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-10). Union membership figures prepared for the AFL-CIO's upcoming convention show overall membership levels down by 102,000 since the last convention. However, the percentage of decline is also reduced from declines posted in recent years ....The membership figures are computed on the basis of the average of per-capita payments made by affiliated unions to the federation each month for the previous two-year period ....Nineteen unions reported a membership increase in the most recent two-year period, and six made gains of 10,000 members or more ....The number of affiliates that lost member (29) during the latest two-year period decreased considerably from the prior two-year period when 44 affiliates lost members. Twenty-two unions reported no membership change, compared with 20 in 1995 ....The International Brotherhood of Teamsters reported 1,276,000 members, making it the largest union in the federation ....(Daily Labor Report, page AA-1). Labor union have had little success organizing workers in recent years, in part because companies have well-oiled anti-union campaigns ....Charts show that workers at nonunion companies are requesting fewer elections to form unions, and, when elections are held, unions are winning less often. Also, strikes involving 1,000 or more workers have declined sharply. National Labor Relations Board is given as the source for the charts ....(USA Today, page 1B). The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services surged in July, increasing 24.7 percent, as exports fall while imports rose, the Commerce Department says ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-1)_____The U.S. trade deficit soared as a flood of Japanese cars produced the biggest gap with Japan in two years. Imports hit an all-time high while exports shrank by 1.4 percent. The politically sensitive deficits with Japan and China widened considerably, and the trade imbalances with Germany, Italy, and France surged to records ....(Washington Post, page G1; New York Times, page C1; Wall Street Journal, page A2).
