BLS DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 1998
RELEASED TODAY: In May 1997, about 25.0 million full-time wage and
salary workers had flexible work schedules that allowed them to vary the
time they began or ended work. The proportion of workers with such
schedules was 27.6 percent, up sharply from the 15.1 percent recorded
when the data were last collected in May 1991. The increase in flexible
work schedules was widespread across demographic groups, occupations,
and industries ....About 15.2 million persons normally worked a shift
other than a regular daytime schedule ....
The subject of this week's "Trendlines" in the Washington Post (page C5)
is "productivity and profits." John M. Berry writes, "A key factor in
the rise in corporate earnings has been the stability of unit labor
costs in the business sector and the decline in unit non-labor costs.
For the past two years, strong productivity advances have offset greater
compensation increases. But if productivity gains falter, as some
analysts fear, so could earnings and stock prices" ....BLS data are used
in the article and chart.
Slack demand for transportation equipment drove down new durable goods
orders 1.7 percent in February, the Commerce Department reports
.....(Daily Labor Report, page D-1)_____Slumping demand for aircraft
pulled down orders to factories for the third time in five months
.....(Washington Post, page C1; Wall Street Journal, page
A2)_____Factories continued to receive orders for big-ticket items at
healthy rates. Durable goods orders, excluding aircraft orders, were up
half a percent ....(New York Times, page D2).
DUE OUT TOMORROW: International Comparisons of Manufacturing
Productivity and Unit Labor Cost Trends, Updated Data for 1996
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