BLS DAILY REPORT, MONDAY, JULY 21, 1997 Import prices increased 0.4 percent in June for the first monthly upturn since December, BLS reports. The cost of goods exported from the United States slipped 0.1 percent, continuing a three-month string of declines ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-1)_____Pricing trends may work to narrow the trade imbalance soon, says the Wall Street Journal in an article on the trade gap in May (page A2). According to a report by the Labor Department, prices for imports rose 0.4 percent in June, the first monthly increase this year, while export prices fell 0.1 percent, the third decline in a row .... Just as in the economy overall, employment in U.S. high-technology industries has shifted substantially away from manufacturing and toward services, according to a study recently published by BLS. Factory payrolls in this sector have declined since the late 1980s. "The industrial composition of employment in R&D-intensive high-technology industries is shifting dramatically toward services industries, as employment in R&D-intensive, defense-dependent manufacturing industries declines and employment in civilian high-tech manufacturing remains essentially static," concludes William Luker Jr. and Donald Lyons in the June issue of BLS's Monthly Labor Review ....(Daily Labor Report, pages A-14, text E-1). Many focus on deflation, says the "Commodities" column in the Wall Street Journal (page C1). As prices for many commodities around the globe slide, some economists predict that supply will continue to outstrip demand, despite a healthy global economy, driving prices even lower ...."If you look at goods and forget about services, we're moving toward deflation," says a Merrill Lynch economist ....Analysts point out that, at least in the U.S. economy, there is today far more emphasis on knowledge-based industries and service industries than on materials industries. While soybeans and gold may be falling, prices for any number of services are rising, albeit slowly ....And some commodity analysts predict that recent deflationary trends in materials will turn around and soon be forgotten .... DUE OUT TOMORROW: Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers: Second Quarter 1997
