BLS DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, MAY 20, 1999
RELEASED TODAY: In March 1999, there were 799 mass layoff actions by
employers as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits
during the month. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single
establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 84,719. Both the
number of layoff events and the number of initial claimants for unemployment
insurance were somewhat higher in March 1999 than in March 1998. ...
Treasury Secretary Rubin says he was not alarmed by the April jump in
consumer prices, adding that he believes the "most likely" scenario for the
U.S. economy is still one of "low inflation with solid growth." ... Rubin
alluded to such developments as recent strong productivity gains, excess
capacity worldwide, and the fact that corporations have little pricing power
as boding well for continued low inflation. ... In remarks to reporters
after a Congressional hearing, he stressed the importance of a continued
"intense focus" in both the industrial and developing countries on creating
strong domestic demand-led growth because it is an "unhealthy situation" for
the U.S. economy to be the only engine of growth (Daily labor Report, page
A-9).
Data compiled by the Bureau of National Affairs in the first 20 weeks of
1999 for newly negotiated settlements show that the median first-year wage
increase equals 3 percent, and the weighted average increase for settlements
reported to date is 2.6 percent. The manufacturing industry's gain is 3
percent, and its weighted average increase is 2.7 percent. Nonmanufacturing
settlements, excluding construction contracts, show a median increase of 3
percent, with a weighted average increase of 2.3 percent. ... (Daily Labor
Report, page D-1).
Should prisoners work? It is an explosive question that drags in a host of
others: At what wage? Who gets the money? Can they compete with the
private sector? Don't we criticize nations such as China for using prison
labor? But it is an issue one is likely to hear a lot more about, says The
Wall Street Journal (page A2). The prison population is soaring and with it
the costs of the criminal justice system. Meanwhile, unemployment has
fallen so low that some companies are scrounging for workers and some
serious economists predict widespread labor shortages early next century.
.... Thought the prison population has more than doubled in a decade, it is
still a tiny and low-skilled fraction of the nation's work force. Putting
every one of them to work full time at the minimum wage would have added a
"barely noticeable" maximum of 0.2 percent to 1998's gross domestic product,
say Princeton University labor economists Alan Krueger and Jeffrey Kling, in
a paper to be presented at a conference tomorrow. ...
The Canadian and U.S. economies are highly integrated and have been subject
to the same forces of globalization, increased competition, and shifting
technology. Yet pay and income inequality has risen sharply in the U.S. but
has remained relatively subdued in Canada. What accounts for these
diverging trends? A study by economists Kevin M. Murphy of the University
of Chicago, W. Craig Riddell of the University of British Columbia, and Paul
M Romer of Stanford University provides a possible answer. In both
economies, technological change has been raising job skill requirements and
thus putting upward pressure on the wage of well-educated workers -- and
downward pressure on the pay of the less educated. But whereas in the U.S.
the ratio of the earnings of college graduates to those of high school
graduates rose sharply to 180 percent between 1980 and 1994, it actually
declined slightly to 157 percent in Canada during the same period. The
explanation is related to Canada's more aggressive efforts to foster
post-secondary school education. Provincial Canadian governments have not
only kept college tuition much lower than in the United States, says
Riddell, but have also provided extra funding for expanded enrollments.
Thus the share of high school grads who go on to college in Canada has
exceeded that in the U.S. in recent decades. This has narrowed the pay gap
in two ways: by increasing the supply of skilled workers relative to demand
and thus tempering their wage premiums -- and by reducing the supply of
less-educated workers and thus easing downward pressure on their pay
(Business Week, May 24, page 22).
A fee-based search engine of federal Web sites will by available for free
while the government decides whether charging for the system conflicts with
federal policy on unrestricted access to public documents. NTIS has
launched www.fedworld.gov as a joint venture with Northern Light Technology
(Washington Post, page E14).
DUE OUT TOMORROW: Regional and State Employment and Unemployment: April
1999
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