BLS DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1999
Both the number of events and the number of workers affected by extended
mass layoffs increased in the first quarter of 1999 compared with the same
period a year earlier, according to BLS. In the January to March period of
this year, BLS said there were 1,484 mass layoff actions by employers that
resulted in job losses for a total of 267,214 workers. Somewhat more than
half of the employers (57 percent) reporting mass layoffs said they expected
to recall these employees. The figures for the most recent period were
higher than the 1,320 mass layoff events recorded for the first quarter of
1998, which resulted in job losses for a total of 208,082 workers. ....
(Daily Labor Report, page D-5)
An article titled "Why Job Losses Are Rising Amid Job Hunters' Nirvana"
discusses how surveys can simultaneously show rising layoffs and an
unemployment rate that hovers near a 30-year low. BLS statistics are
quoted. ... Though layoffs tend to attract more attention during periods of
economic stress, they can often signal economic vitality and long-term
willingness to create jobs, even as they temporarily victimize some workers.
.... The announced layoffs data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas need to be
put into the context of a labor market that is constantly churning.
Another, truly startling, number is: 13 million workers change their
employment status in a typical month, according to BLS. On average, that
means 13 million Americans leave home or school to enter the labor force,
exit the labor force without looking for new work, find new work after a
spell of unemployment, or search for work after they quit or are dismissed
or laid off -- every month. ... The Labor Department does collect data
every two years on dislocated workers -- workers who lose their jobs because
a plant closes or moves, or because sales fall. ... These figures have been
falling as have the number of unemployed workers who report they lost their
jobs. ... (Michael M. Weinstein in New York Times, page C1,
www.nytimes.com/99/07/22/news/financial)
A correction was carried by Business Week (July 26, page 11). An earlier
article had "erroneously asserted" that the CPI does not allow for
substitution of one good for another in the same category. Business Week
points out that, in January 1999, the CPI was modified to capture such
substitutions.
Construction of new homes and apartments slumped 5.6 percent in June,
dragged down by rising mortgage interest rates, the Commerce Department
reports. Seasonally adjusted data compiled by the department's Census
Bureau showed that housing starts dropped back to a 1.57 million a year rate
in June. That was the slowest pace of construction since May 1998, when
builders broke ground on new homes and apartments at a 1.54 million a year
pace. Plunging construction in the West and Midwest more than offset a
slight rise in starts in the South, and falling single-family home
construction outstripped the growth in multifamily starts. ... (Daily Labor
Report, page D-1; Wall Street Journal, page A2)
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