BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1997 RELEASED TODAY: CPI -- On a seasonally adjusted basis, the CPI-U rose 0.2 percent in August, the same as in July. The food index increased 0.4 percent in August. Grocery store food prices, which rose 0.3 percent in July, increased 0.6 percent in August, reflecting a larger increase in prices for fresh fruits and vegetables. The energy index, which had exerted a moderating effect on the CPI-U throughout most of 1997, increased 1.7 percent in August ....Excluding food and energy, the CPI-U rose 0.1 percent, following an increase of 0.2 percent in July. The smaller advance in August reflects declines in the indexes for apparel and upkeep and for airline fares .... REAL EARNINGS -- Real average weekly earnings increased by 0.8 percent from July to August after seasonal adjustment. This gain was due to a 0.4 percent increase in average hourly earnings and a 0.6 percent gain in average weekly hours. These gains were partially offset by an increase of 0.2 percent in the CPI-W ....Between August of 1996 and 1997, real average weekly earnings grew by 2.1 percent .... Since 1993, the difference between full-time men's and women's wages and salaries may have widened somewhat after years of narrowing, but senior officials at BLS said that the available numbers aren't precise enough to be sure ....Philip Rones, a BLS expert in labor force statistics, cautioned that part of the apparent drop may be due to a revision made at the beginning of 1994 in the employment questionnaire ...."You have to forget the drop between 1993 and 1994," Rones said, because there is no way to determine how the new questionnaire and the use of hand-held computers by surveyors affected the responses ....Rones and other BLS officials also are skeptical about the decline since 1994 because it is concentrated among the youngest group of workers, those aged 16 to 24 ....There is a further complication due to the method BLS uses to "smooth" the median figures to cope with a problem in the way in which those questioned give answers about their "usual" weekly pay: They tend to think in round numbers ...."These are tough numbers to work with," Rones said. Because of the revision in the survey, "we really only have two years on a comparable basis, and given the technical issues with the data, it would be premature to say for certain that there is a change in the trend" ....(John M. Berry, Washington Post, page C3). President Clinton plans to nominate BLS Commissioner Katharine Abraham for a second four-year term, according to the White House. Abraham told BNA that she looks forward to serving another term as BLS's top administrator ...."I hope that they [members of the Senate] will act before Oct. 7," Abraham said, citing several major data revision efforts that are in progress. Her term expires Oct. 7 ....Just a few months after assuming the top position at BLS, Abraham led the agency's effort to educate the media and the public about the redesign of the household employment survey ....During her tenure, the bureau has been at the center of an often contentious debate over its CPI data, which early in 1995 became the focus of efforts to cut federal spending ....Abraham noted that the multi-year project to update and revise the CPI is one of the bureau's major efforts that is approaching its final stages ....Also, Abraham said, the agency has just begun testing a new sampling procedure for the monthly establishment or payroll survey ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-11). A study of 2,500 workers in America concludes that employees believe they have contributed to their companies' economic boom but are not being fully recognized or rewarded. The survey, sponsored by the management consulting firm Towers Perrin, found worker satisfaction had increased since a 1995 study, but that workers have grown more skeptical of whether they are sharing equitably in the success they helped create for their employers ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-6). Arguing that the benefits of immigration, while still contributing to California's economic growth, are steadily eroding as poorly educated immigrants run into "an increasingly upskill labor market," a new RAND Corp. study calls for a sharp drop in the volume of legal immigration and expanded criteria for admission eligibility, including proof of English proficiency ....In what they termed the first attempt to quantify the effect of new, low-skilled workers on the job prospects of similarly skilled natives, the study found that 1 percent to 1.5 percent of low-skilled natives have been driven out of the California labor force since 1970, due to the increased competition from immigrants ....The study makes clear that California is a unique case among states, with immigrants younger, less educated, with higher fertility rates and more likely to be illegal than immigrants elsewhere ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-12). DUE OUT TOMORROW: U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes -- August 1997
