BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, 1997 __The widespread use of part-time workers at United Parcel Service is drawing public attention to one of the thorniest workplace issues. Part-time employment in private industry has grown rapidly in the last two decades, now amounting to about 22 million workers -- just under 20 percent of the workforce, according to BLS. But the vast majority of those workers say they like their part-time status ....BLS defines part-time employment as 35 hours a week or less, under the monthly household survey. BLS economic Thomas Nardone said that, on average, part-time workers logged 19.8 hours a week in 1996. Industry data from the same survey showed that in 1996 only 11.6 percent of all wage and salary workers in the transportation industry, which includes UPS, are part-time workers. Nardone pointed out that because the BLS definition of part-time work is 35 hours or less, any UPS workers who took part in the survey and had worked more than 35 hours would not be counted as part time in the official statistics ....(Daily Labor Report, page B-1). __"Strike Points to Inequality in 2-Tier Job Market" is that title of an article by Louis Uchitelle in The New York Times (page A22). Uchitelle says that the dividing line between the two tiers of wage-earners first showed itself in the early 1970s ....BLS notes that the median wage of full-time workers is $9.36 an hour, compared with $6.01 for part-time workers, a gap that has persisted for years. But Marvin Kosters, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, concluded in a study that, when allowances are made for skills and education, the gap essentially disappears. Similarly, the bureau notes that the number of part-time workers rose to 19.5 percent of the work force in 1994 from 14 percent in 1968. The percentage has since dropped slightly, but Susan Houseman, a labor economist at the Upjohn Institute, argues that such data fail to account for the growing number of Americans who hold two part-time jobs, or a full-time and a part-time job. They appear instead in the official count as full-timers, working a total of more than 35 hours a week .... __The tight labor market for work force helps strikers, says the Wall Street Journal (page A2). UPS would have a tough time hiring replacement workers for all but a fraction of the 185,000 Teamsters union members who walked off their jobs this week. These days, with the unemployment rate at a seasonally adjusted 4.8 percent of the work force, employers need their workers more than their workers need the employers, giving workers certain leverage ....A graph shows the monthly unemployment rate in Louisville, Ky., not seasonally adjusted, 1991 to the present. The number of new unemployment insurance claims filed with state agencies rose by 25,000, from a 23-year low, to a seasonally adjusted 300,000 in the week ending Aug. 2, the Labor Department's Employment and Training Administration reports (Daily Labor Report, page D-1; Wall Street Journal, page A1). The U.S. economy is likely to stay on its current path of strong overall growth and low inflation, given favorable labor market developments, says Jerry Jasinowski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers ....While there are labor shortages in some industries and many parts of the country, they should not pose a major threat to expansion over the next year and a half, he said. NAM's forecast shows the unemployment rate averaging 4.9 percent in each of the next 3 years (1997 through 1999) ....The CPI is expected to increase by 2 percent this year, 2.2 percent in 1998, and 2.3 percent in 1999. Intense global competition in many markets, as well as strong productivity gains that are keeping labor costs in check, are largely responsible for the favorable economic trends ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-2) Layoff announcements jump sharply in July, more than triple the June figure and 15.5 percent more than in July 1996, according to a report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., an outplacement firm that tracks job-cut announcements ....The retail sector led in announced layoffs ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-7). Inventories piled up on wholesalers' shelves in June, at the fastest pace since the recession year 1982, the Commerce Department said. Inventories jumped 1.9 percent (USA Today, page B1).
