Dave: First, thank you for posting these reports. Second, do you know if the CPI is also used as a basis for the IRS' annual income tax schedule adjustments? If so, it would seem that the new CPI calculations could have the added impact of increasing the tax burden on wage earners. Jeff Fellows ---------- From: Richardson_D To: Jorgensen_Helene; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: FW: BLS Daily Report Date: Friday, November 28, 1997 10:17AM BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1997 Initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits rose 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 333,000 in the week ended Nov. 15, the Employment and Training Administration says. The new claims figure reached its highest level since Aug. 16 ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-1)_____The Wall Street Journal (page A2) says analysts discounted the jump since it came during a week that included Veterans Day. The government has trouble seasonally adjusting for weeks that include holidays .... A new survey shows that more than half of major companies are coping with workforce reductions by using work/family programs to help remaining employees, the Conference Board reports. As rounds of layoffs reduce morale and increase employee stress, officials at the 41 firms polled said they are looking for new ways to address employee anxiety and uncertainty over the prospects of continued employment, the board says. Flextime schedules, including part-time work, are sometimes used as an alternative to layoffs ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-1). A survey finds that 81 percent of small and medium-sized employers are having difficulty attracting and retaining qualified employees. Sixty-nine percent of the 245 employers participating in the survey released by NovaCare Employee Services, a national employee services company, said attracting qualified employees was their number one human resource problem, while 39 percent ranked retaining employees second .....(Daily Labor Report, page A-10). Employers have, on average, cut staff by 12 percent through various workforce reduction measures since 1992, according to a survey conducted by Hewitt Associates. Workforce reductions are not as common as they were in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and employers who make reductions are focusing more on the needs of the surviving workforce and providing increased levels of support to displaced employees. Early retirement windows are typically the first approach employers use in workforce reduction situations, Hewitt said ....(Daily Report, page A-9). Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan says that Social Security retirement age should again be raised and the annual cost-of-living adjustment should be trimmed to ensure the future solvency of the hugh retirement system .....Greenspan made his comments at a meeting of a special Senate Budget Committee task force on Social Security ....Many experts have suggested 70 as a retirement age that would accurately reflect the changes in health and longevity since Social Security was adopted by Congress in 1935. The annual increase in Social Security benefits is linked to changes in the federal CPI, which overstates the "true cost of living," Greenspan said ....(Washington Post, page C1; New York Times, page A24). Manufacturing executives expect growth will moderate somewhat through January, while constructions executives foresee little change, according to Dun & Bradstreet's latest monthly survey ....(Wall Street Journal, page B11A). The nation's trade deficit jumped to an 8-month high September, as exports declined while imports continued to rise strongly, the Commerce Department reported. Analysts attributed the growing trade deficit to the combination of rapid U.S. economic growth, slower growth in Japan and several other countries, and the rising value of the dollar. A number of analysts said that the financial crises in several Asian nations is too recent to have had much of an impact on U.S. trade. However, those nations' troubles are expected to widen the deficit in coming months as they export more to the United States while buying fewer imports ....(Washington Post, page A37; New York Times, page C1; Wall Street Journal, page A2). European Union leaders met in Luxembourg to confront the continent's high jobless rates. Europe has 18 million unemployed. The unemployment rate is more than double that of the United States and triple Japan's .....(Wall Street Journal, page A19).
