[PEN-L:174] BLS Daily Report

[Richardson_D]

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BLS DAILY REPORT, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1998

Full employment should be the main goal of the Federal Reserve's
monetary policy to reverse decades of widening wage inequality, says
economist James K. Galbraith.  "Wage inequality narrowed last year for
the first time in almost two decades," says Galbraith at a Century Fund
panel discussion in Washington, D.C.  Galbraith points to the sustained
low unemployment rate as the reason wage inequality reversed its
widening trend in 1997.  He argued that the expansion is at jeopardy
because of the Asian crisis, the economic collapse of Russian, and the
stock market slide. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A-5).

The unemployment rate remained at a relatively low level in all regions
of the country in August, with the Midwest recording the lowest rate at
3.5 percent, BLS reports. Among the other regions, the jobless rate was
4.4 percent in the South, 4.5 percent in the Northeast, and 5.2 percent
in the West. Over the year ended in August, the unemployment rate
declined 0.9 percentage point in the Northeast, 0.5 point in the Midwest
and South, and 0.3 point in the West. ... (Daily Labor Report, page
D-1).

Employment opportunities will remain abundant through the end of 1998,
although job prospects for some workers appear to be slipping from the
decade-high levels observed earlier this year, according to BNA's latest
quarterly employment survey. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-13).

Housing starts fell 5.5 percent in August, more than reversing July's
5.3 percent gain,  the Commerce Department reported. However, building
permits, considered a barometer of future economic activity, rose 2.2
percent during the month. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-9; Wall Street
Journal, page A2).

The financial and political blows of recent weeks have yet to shake
Americans' basic faith in the United States economy or their own
finances -- good news for the seven-and-a-half-year-old expansion.
Since the Russian economy's collapse, the tumble in stock prices, and
the release of the Starr report, consumers have turned only slightly
more cautions, according to a major poll of consumer attitudes.  The
University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index slipped to 100.1 in
September, from 104.1 in August -- mostly because consumers'
expectations for the economy in the next year or so are somewhat less
upbeat.  By past measures, confidence remains exceptionally high. ...
(New York Times, Sept. 19, page A1).  

DUE OUT TOMORROW:  Employment and Unemployment Among Youth--Summer 1998


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