[PEN-L:342] BLS Daily Report

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BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1998

Economic demand continued to advance in the second quarter, but profit
margins narrowed appreciably and employment growth slowed, the National
Association for Business Economics says in a newly released survey....
Details of the report showed that the upswing in second-quarter demand
came despite a significant, Asia-related, weakening in the
good-producing sector of the economy....  The Washington, D.C.-based
trade group said that its employment index slumped "decisively" and that
materials and labor costs held steady at more than 50 percent of the
firms surveyed.  However, 45 percent of respondents reported higher wage
and salary costs....  (Daily Labor Report, page A-1).

Job-sharing, flextime, working from home, and financial assistance
benefit programs could find their way into more companies within the
next few years, according to a Buck Consultants Inc. survey.  For its
survey of 1,058 employers, Buck examined the prevalence and design
features of various types of welfare benefit programs offered by
employers including sick time, vacation time, life insurance, short and
long-term disability, and business travel insurance.  The national
survey found that, of employers considering programs to be offered in
the future, 41 percent were considering work-at-home policies, 38
percent are considering telecommuting arrangements, and 29 percent are
considering job sharing.  About 2 out of every 10 employers said they
already were using some kind of a non-traditional working arrangement,
with flextime the most common, offered by 52 percent of those reporting
programs, the survey said....  In addition, the survey found that many
employers offer various financial benefits.  Some 87 percent of the
surveyed employers said they provide tuition reimbursement for
work-related education expenses, and 66 percent offer employee
assistance programs. Other financial assistance programs respondents
reported using include: credit unions (65 percent); employee discounts
(54 percent); dependent care spending accounts (59 percent), and
subsidized on-site cafeterias (31 percent)....  (Daily Labor Report,
page A-2).

Three workers are killed each day from work-related motor vehicle
accidents, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health, which noted that motor vehicle crashes were the leading
cause of work-related deaths of U.S. workers from 1980 to 1992,
accounting for 20 percent of all fatal workplace injuries.  Not included
were fatalities while traveling to and from work....  NIOSH said the
actual number of traffic-related deaths is higher than the number
reported because only a portion of work-related fatalities associated
with traffic crashes are captured by death certificates....  Data for
the report were taken from the National Traumatic Occupational
Fatalities Surveillance System, based on information culled from death
certificates of workers 16 and older.  The NTOF data were supplemented
by data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's
Fatality Analysis Reporting System, a census of fatal traffic crashes
that contains information drawn from a number of sources, including
reports from police, coroners, and medical examiners...  (Daily Report,
page A-9)_____NIOSH calls for action to reduce on-the-job traffic
deaths....  (Washington Post, page E4).

Sales of existing single-family homes slipped in June from May's high
level, but remained robust.  The decrease was 2.3 percent, the National
Association of Realtors says....  (New York Times, page C2)_____Sales of
existing homes slipped a bit in June from a furious pace in May, while a
jump in prices and slimmer inventory suggest the nation's housing market
may be tightening....  (Wall Street Journal, page A2)_____Sales of
existing homes dipped in June, but remain on track to set a record in
1998....  (Washington Post, page E2).

Tight labor market or not, employers won't let white-collar salary
raises get out of hand in 1999, a poll of 1,561 employers by consultant
William M. Mercer Inc., N.Y., shows.  Salary increases averaging between
4 and 4.2 percent are foreseen, about the same as this year (Wall Street
Journal, "Work Week" column, page A1).

As the economy booms, wages rise for child-care workers, says The New
York Times (July 26, page 27).  The winners in the escalating nanny war
appear to be millionaires - who can afford to pay a nanny up to $1,000 a
week after taxes.  The deal often includes health insurance, a
retirement plan, use of a BMW, and perhaps a guest cottage behind the
main mansion.  The losers are the merely prosperous, particularly
single-parent and two-income families who consider a nanny a
necessity.....  In fact, most American parents cannot afford at-home
child care, much less the expensive nannies who are hired through
agencies and get paid on the books.  But the majority of women who work
in at-home child care get paid under the table and are likely to earn
less money than career nannies; some are illegal immigrants and others
do not speak fluent English....  Demand for all household help is
increasing, said the president of a national employment agency....  In
New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, the number of people working in
homes as nannies, cooks, cleaners, and drivers grew by about 7,000
between 1992, when the regional economy began to recover, and 1996, the
most recent data for which figures are available, according to BLS.
That works out to an increase of 23 percent - five times faster than
private employment growth in the region, said John L. Wieting, regional
commissioner of the bureau.  "This certainly is a very rapid growth
industry," he said, "and there is no reason to expect that this kind of
growth has not continued."  Though many people do not show up in the
data, which are based on records for workers eligible for state
unemployment insurance,  Wieting said he thought the overall trend was
similar....  

DUE OUT TOMORROW: Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment: June
1998


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