[PEN-L:1162] BLS Daily Report

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BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 1998:

Today's News Release:  "Regional and State Employment and Unemployment:
July 1998" indicates that regional and state unemployment rates were
relatively stable in July.   All four regions reported virtually no
change over the month, as 42 states and the District of Columbia
recorded shifts of 0.3 percentage point or less.  The national jobless
rate remained at 4.5 percent.  Nonfarm payroll employment increased in
26 states. 

New claims filed with state agencies for unemployment insurance benefits
declined by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted total of 301,000 for the week
ending August 15, the Employment and Training Administration of the
Department of Labor reports (Daily Labor Report, page D-1).

A decrease in first-time claims for State unemployment insurance
benefits indicates that the labor market remains extremely tight, says
The Wall Street Journal (page A2).  The Labor Department said the number
of American workers laid off from 1995 to 1997 dropped sharply
from the prior 3 year period.  A total of 3.6 million workers were
"displaced," according to the government's biannual survey, down nearly
15 percent from 1993-95.  The study includes data from 1995 in both time
periods. The study, reported in yesterday's New York Times, also found
that getting laid off caused less trouble for workers as the economy
improved.  The Labor Department hasn't charted layoff trends this year,
but other studies indicate that the number may be rising again, fueled
by the Asian crisis and a wave of mergers.  Challenger, Gray, &
Christmas, Inc., a Chicago firm that tracks layoff announcements, said
companies had announced 321,217 job cuts through the end of July, a 37
percent rise from a year earlier (The Wall Street Journal, page A2).

Manufacturing executives predicted moderate business erosion through
October, while construction executives see continued expansion,
according to Dun & Bradstreet Corp.'s most recent monthly survey.  The
Dun & Bradstreet July survey of 1,000 manufacturing executives indicates
business conditions will decline, especially in production and
employment.  The industrial sentiment index, a measure of manufacturing
executives' expectations for the coming 3 months, was 19, down from 23
in June and from 21 a year ago.  In the survey of 200 
construction executives, the price index fell to 16 from 24 in June and
from 17 a year ago.  The employment index rose to 22 from 17 in June,
and 18 a year earlier (The Wall Street Journal, page A2).

Variable pay plans continued to become more prominent in 1998, with 72
percent of employers reporting they offer at least one such plan,
continuing a trend that has built from 47 percent in 1990, according to
Hewitt Associates.  The Hewitt survey also found that salary increases
for 1999 will be at their highest point since 1993, with employers'
projections averaging 4.2 percent for salaried exempt employees,
compared to last year's projections of 4.1 percent (Daily Labor Report,
page A-2).

Alan Greenspan says that today's workers, fearing job obsolescence, are
more flexible and willing to learn new skills.  He also sees a high-tech
economy as a natural inflation fighter.  It spurs faster - and longer -
growth.  And he says that corporate America's heavy investment in
computers and other labor-saving technologies is boosting productivity
growth well above the trend of recent decades.  The growth of the global
economy, coupled with technological advances, enables companies to shift
production easily around the world.  That means fewer inflationary
bottlenecks from capacity shortages.  Globalization and corporate
downsizing mean that employees put a premium on job security.  They're
also more willing to tie pay to performance - reducing the risk of wage
inflation (Business Week, August 31, page 70).

It's no longer just the elite who are gaining from the innovation boom.
Wages are growing across the board.  A chart shows percent change in
real quarterly weekly earnings for three categories of workers: workers
earning more than 90 percent of all workers, median workers, and workers
earning less than 90 percent of all workers.  Another chart shows the
change in real wages and salaries over a year earlier, from 1995 to the
present.  Data is attributed to BLS, by Business Week (August 31, page
72).  Far from being left behind, the working and middle classes are
reacting to the high-tech boom by getting training so they can prosper
in the years ahead, says the business magazine.    


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