[PEN-L:3549] BLS Daily Report

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BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1999

RELEASED TODAY:  The U.S. Import Price Index increased 0.2 percent in
January.  A turnaround in the price index for petroleum led the increase;
the price index for imports had declined 0.8 percent and 0.5 percent in
December and November, respectively.  The U.S. Export Price Index was
unchanged in January, after falling 0.1 percent in December. ...  

Rapid-fire change in the U.S. economy continues to feed worker insecurity,
despite the strongest job market in decades, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan
tells a meeting of the American Council on Education.  The fed chief points
to results of a survey of 405,593 employees by Chicago-based International
Survey Research LLC, which shows that 37 percent of workers are concerned
about losing their job, compared with only 12 percent in 1981.  The survey
also suggests that dissatisfaction with current pay has started to swell,
and workers may soon begin demanding higher wages. ...  Economists often
have argued that very tight labor markets give rise to inflation, prompting
workers to demand higher pay and consequently driving up consumer prices.
Although consumer prices have increased only moderately in recent months,
ISR's latest data could fuel speculation of a return of wage-based
inflation. ...  (Daily Labor Report, page AA-1).

Some employers lift hiring standards, amid labor shortages and weak
applicants, says The Wall Street Journal (page A2). ...  Although the
shortage of quality workers is the No. 1 headache named by small-business
owners, many employers say they're becoming more selective.  One major
reason:  The relatively small supply contains a higher-than-ever percentage
of unqualified applicants. ...  And with the national unemployment rate at
4.5 percent, the lowest in 3 decades, many businesses from manufacturing to
motel chains have tried to beat the worker shortage by offering higher pay
and benefits.  One result:  Hourly wages for the bottom 20 percent of the
pay scale rose 2.4 percent in 1998, after inflation, to $7.77.  Other
companies are giving workers ownership stakes, plugging holes with more
temporary employees, and hiring the first warm body that walks through the
door, then keeping them even though their attitude and performance may be
not-so-hot. ...  Yet hiring the underqualified is just too expensive, some
say. ...    

Data compiled by BNA in the first 6 weeks of 1999 show that the median
first-year wage increase in newly negotiated labor contracts equals 3
percent, and the weighted average increase for settlements reported to date
in 1999 is 2.2 percent. ...  (Daily Labor Report, page D-1).

DUE OUT TOMORROW:  Producer Price Indexes -- January 1999


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