> BLS DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2001:
>
> RELEASED TODAY: Labor productivity in manufacturing increased in 1999 in
> 10 of the 11 countries for which comparable data were available, according
> to revised data from BLS. The productivity increase in the United States
> was the highest among the countries compared, 6.6 percent. The next
> largest increases were in the United Kingdom and France. The productivity
> increase in Belgium was slight, and there was no change in productivity in
> Norway.
>
> Federal Reserve officials have been out in force this week, delivering
> upbeat messages about the economic outlook but tempering them with concern
> over weak capital spending and high energy prices. The Federal Reserve
> bank presidents' optimism that the current slowdown will be over by
> midyear suggests there is little urgency to cut interest rates before Fed
> policymakers meet May 15. Still, they cited enough risks that a cut
> couldn't be ruled out (The Wall Street Journal, page A2).
>
> Service sector growth slowed in March as employment fell, but other
> fundamental factors such as new orders for services continued to gain
> strength, the National Association of Purchasing Management reports. NAPM,
> a Tempe, Ariz.-based research organization, said its nonmanufacturing
> business activity index slipped 1.4 percentage points to 50.3 percent --
> its second lowest level since the index began in July 1997. An index level
> above 50.0 percent indicates that the sector is expanding, while a level
> below 50.0 would indicate contracting business activity, NAPM says. One
> key factor to the decline in the nonmanufaturing index was the 0.9
> percentage point fall in the survey's employment index. That index for
> the service sector now stands at 49.4 percent, its lowest level since the
> survey began, NAPM says. Industries reporting the highest rates of
> reduction in employment during March included transportation,
> communication, mining, and finance and banking (Daily Labor Report, page
> A-5).
>
> A gauge of business excluding manufacturers fell in March to the
> second-lowest level on record, and a measure of employment other than at
> factories contracted for the first time since the index began, the
> National Association of Purchasing Management says. The report "does
> raise all sorts of warning flags," and provides evidence that the Labor
> Department's report on Friday on March employment will indicate a slower
> pace of job growth, says the chief economist at FinancialOxygen, an
> information service in Walnut Creek, Calif. Even so, he and other
> economists cautioned that the report covered too few years to be fully
> reliable. There were positive signs. The index of new orders rose to 52.2
> in March from 51.3 in February. The group's prices-paid index, a measure
> of costs for purchased materials and services, fell to 59.5 in March from
> 60.5 in February. But the index measuring new export orders dropped to
> 49.5 in March from 53.5 in February. And while the survey showed that
> inventories decreased for a fifth consecutive month, it also found that a
> rising number of purchasing executives thought inventories were still too
> high (Bloomberg News in The New York Times, page C7).
>
> Data compiled by the Bureau of National Affairs in the first 14 weeks of
> 2001 show that the weighted average first-year increase in newly
> negotiated contracts was 5.2 percent, compared with 3.5 percent in 2000.
> The manufacturing industry weighted average increase was 3.5 percent,
> compared with 3.4 percent in 2000, while nonmanufacturing (excluding
> construction) agreements showed a weighted average increase of 4.2
> percent. Construction agreements reported to date in 2001 posted a
> weighted average increase of 3.6 percent, compared with 2.6 percent in
> 2000, and a median of 3.6 percent, compared with 3.8 percent (Daily Labor
> Report, page D-1).
>
> DUE OUT TOMORROW: The Employment Situation, March 2001
>
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