BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1997 RELEASED TODAY: The U.S. Import Price Index increased 0.4 percent in June. A rise in both imported petroleum prices and nonpetroleum prices contributed to the increase. The U.S. Export Price Index fell for the third straight month, dipping 0.1 percent in June, due to a continued decline in agricultural prices .... BLS estimates that there were 1,009 mass layoffs in April 1997, about the same as in April 1996. Looking at data for April, BLS finds that California had the largest number of initial claims filed by people fired in mass layoffs -- 56,401 (Daily Labor Report, page D-7). New claims for unemployment insurance benefits decreased by 28,000 to a seasonally adjusted 349,000 in the week ended July 12, the Labor Department announces. The fall reverses much of the sharp increase in new claims during the previous week ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-5). Construction of new single-family homes and apartments rebounded strongly in June, rising 4.8 percent with gains in all regions except the Northeast, the Commerce Department says ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-1; New York Times, page C6; Wall Street Journal, page A2). Housing starts rose, bolstered by falling interest rates and a strong job market ....New claims for state jobless benefits fell but had surged the previous week as automakers laid off workers because plants are being retooled for 1998 model production (Washington Post, page G2).
