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BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1997:
RELEASED TODAY: In March 1997, employer costs for employee compensation
for civilian workers (private industry and state and local government)
in the United States averaged $19.22 per hour worked. Straight-time
wages and salaries, which averaged $13.85, accounted for 72 percent of
these costs, while benefits, which averaged $5.37, accounted for the
remaining 28 percent ....
The Employment Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, estimates that
the United States has lost a net of 2.4 million jobs due to free-trade
policies between 1979 and 1994. An EPI report says that, between those
two years, the $99.5 billion inflation-adjusted increase in the U.S.
goods and services deficit eliminated 2.4 million job opportunities.
Most of the net jobs lost - 2.2 million - were in manufacturing ....The
report looks at 183 industries and examines how trade flows have
affected demographic and income groups and the wages of workers in
import and export industry jobs. Free trade policies have caused every
economic group to lose job opportunities, even the college educated, the
study says ....The report found that industries facing rapidly growing
imports pay wages that are about 4.5 percent higher than sectors in
which exports are growing rapidly ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-2).
A Business Roundtable report says a shortage of skilled craft labor in
the construction industry is causing "significant problems in staffing
construction projects," increasing costs and delaying schedules. The
clear message in the report was that business owners "should do business
only with contractors who invest in training and maintain the skills of
their workforce" ....The Business Roundtable is an association comprised
of the chief executives of more than 200 of the nation's largest
corporations ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-9).
The National Coalition on Health Care says the quality of health care is
eroding at a crisis rate while the cost of insurance coverage is rising.
In addition, the number of uninsured people is increasing, despite a
growing economy, challenging the myth that economic growth alone will
cure the problem, according to the president of the coalition ....(Daily
Labor Report, page A-6)_____One in five, or about 47 million, Americans
under age 65 will have no health insurance in the year 2005 if current
trends continue and society takes no action, a coalition of 100
businesses and health industry and consumer groups said. Most of the
uninsured will have jobs. Driving the trend, said the National Coalition
on Health Care, are rising insurance costs for small businesses, the
growth of service industry jobs, and an increasing number of part-time
and contractual workers (USA Today, page 3A).
After four years of near stability brought about by the spread of
managed care, the premiums that most Americans pay for their health
insurance are poised to rise significantly next year, industry groups
and health care consultants report. Many say the average charge for
health benefits, deducted from paychecks, will go up at least 5 percent,
or more than twice as much as wages and inflation have been rising. For
very large employers with great negotiating clout, the increases could
be smaller, they say ....But across the nation, at some small companies
with older and illness-prone employees, analysts say, the premiums might
rise as much as 30 percent ....(New York Times, Oct. 19, page A1).
Needing 40,000 more technicians and machine operators by 2002, 10 makers
of the microchips that store or process data in computers and other
devices are looking for people to staff 38 new plants nationwide. Their
Sematech coalition has persuaded 18 more community and technical
colleges to offer courses in semiconductor-manufacturing technology, or
SMT ....(The Wall Street Journal, "Work Week" column, page A1).
DUE OUT TOMORROW: Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers:
Third Quarter 1997
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