[PEN-L:829] BLS Daily Report

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BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1998

RELEASED TODAY:  The number of fatal work injuries that occurred during
1997 was 6,218, about the same as the previous year's total.  Decreases
in deaths from job-related homicides and aircraft crashes in 1997 were
offset by increases in work-related deaths from highway crashes, falls,
and being caught in running equipment.  The construction industry
reported the largest number of fatal work injuries and accounted for
half of worker fatalities from falls.  Taxicab drivers and police and
detectives were among the occupations with the largest increases in
fatalities over the previous year....  

__U.S. nonfarm businesses saw their productivity decline at a seasonally
adjusted annual rate of 0.2 percent in the second quarter, and their
labor costs accelerate to a 4.1 percent increase, according to data
released by BLS.  The productivity decline was the first since the first
quarter of 1995.  Analysts say the slump is related in part to the GM
strike....  (Daily Labor Report, page D-1).
__The productivity of American workers - a crucial factor in determining
whether living standards improve - declined during the April-June
quarter for the first time in more than three years....  Analysts said
many employers kept their payrolls at full strength despite an abrupt
slowing in economic output attributed to trade problems with Asia, the
General Motors strike and the need to clear inventories (Washington
Post, page C8; New York Times, page D3).

Labor unrest is in the air - or so it would seem....  Yet there were
just 29 strikes last year involving 1,000 or more workers, the fewest
since records were first kept in 1947 and down from 424 in 1974.  At the
present pace, there will be a record low 20 strikes this year.  Despite
an unprecedented tenfold increase in spending on recruitment, unions
lost a net 159,000 members in 1997 and may have a net loss this year.
The unionized share of U.S. workers is 14.1 percent, down from 14.5
percent in 1996 and 20.1 percent in 1983....  There are several reasons
for the decline.  Government agencies have taken over in such areas as
workplace safety and harassment.  Jobs in traditionally unionized
manufacturing and mining industries have decreased as a share of all
jobs. Global competition has rendered unions less effective in making
wage demands....  The conservative Employment Policy Institute estimates
that unions must increase membership by more than 300,000 a year just to
maintain 14 percent of the growing workforce....  (USA Today, Aug. 10,
page 3B).

The economy is strong and newspapers are full of help-wanted ads.  But
prosperity doesn't guarantee security for workers with the most
seniority.  Half the job-hunters counseled in the second quarter by
outplacement specialists Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. had spent 10
years or more in their last job.  That's the longest since the
recessionary fourth quarter of 1990, when the median span was 13 years.
Severance pay, too, shows it's veteran workers who get the ax:
Challenger Gray says median severance was 25 weeks' pay in the second
quarter:  In 1996, the median was 13 weeks....  (Business Week, Aug. 17,
page 22).

Producer prices of finished goods probably edged up just 0.1 percent in
July, after slipping the same amount in June.  Excluding food and energy
costs, prices also likely increased 0.1 percent on top of a 0.2 percent
increase in June (Business Week, Aug. 17, page 109).

The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 has done little to slow or reverse
federal paperwork, in part because OPM has yet to implement key
procedures -- and may lack the manpower -- to corral federal agencies
into reducing the overall paperwork burden, GAO reports....  (Daily
Labor Report, page A-3). 

DUE OUT TOMORROW:  U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes -- July 1998


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