BLS DAILY REPORT, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 1997
RELEASED TODAY: The number of families with at least one employed
person rose by 709,000 in 1996. Such families comprised 81.4 percent
of the nation's 69.2 million families, according to a new annual
series on the employment characteristics of families and family
members from the Current Population Survey ....
Producer prices for finished goods dropped a seasonally adjusted 0.3
percent in May for the fifth consecutive monthly decline, the Labor
Department reports. Not since 1952 has the Producer Price Index for
Finished Goods declined for five months in a row, says BLS economist
Bill Thomas ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-1)_____With fresh evidence
that inflation is receding, consumers are upbeat, and interest rates
are headed down, stock prices hit another record on Wall Street
....Analysts said prices are being kept in check by falling energy
costs and a strong dollar, which lowers the cost of imported goods
....(Washington Post, June 14, page A1)_____The conventional wisdom
that low unemployment leads inexorably to rising prices took another
hit as the government reported that an important measure intended to
detect early signs of inflation fell in May, the fifth consecutive
month to show a decline ....This is a continuation of a pattern we
have seen for some time, where finished goods prices and the core rate
are either very, very stable or slightly negative, said Kenneth
Dalton, associate commissioner for price and living conditions at BLS
.....(New York Times, June 14, page 25)_____Wholesale prices fell for
the fifth consecutive month in May, reinforcing the belief that global
competition and technology have wrestled inflation to the ground
....(Wall Street Journal, page A2)
The Wall Street Journal's feature "Tracking the Economy" (page A4)
forecasts that consumer prices for May, to be released tomorrow, will
rise 0.1 percent. The previous figure was 0.1 percent ....Nonfarm
productivity for the first quarter, revised, will be released
Wednesday and, according to the technical data consensus forecast,
will rise by 2.1 percent. The original estimate was a rise of 2.0
percent
U.S. firms expanded their inventories by a moderate 0.3 percent in
April, about the same pace as in March, the Census Bureau reported
....(Daily Labor Report, page A-3).
DUE OUT TOMORROW:
Consumer Price Index -- May 1997
Real Earnings: May 1997
