> BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2001:
>
> Released Today: The Bureau of Labor Statistics today reported multifactor
> productivity data -- output per unit of combined inputs -- for 1999.
> Multifactor productivity is designed to measure the joint influences on
> economic growth of technological change, efficiency improvements, returns
> to scale, reallocation of resources, and other factors. Multifactor
> productivity, therefore, differs from the labor productivity (output per
> hour) measures that are published quarterly by BLS since it requires
> information on capital services and other data that are not available on a
> quarterly basis. In 1999, multifactor productivity in the private
> business and private nonfarm business sectors increased 0.8 percent for
> private business and 0.6 percent for private nonfarm business. In
> manufacturing, increases in multifactor productivity for 1999 were 0.7
> percent.
>
> The Bureau of Labor Statistics proposes to significantly boost spending on
> improvements in the consumer price index, one of the most widely used
> government statistical programs, says Pam Ginsbach in the Daily Labor
> Report (page AA-4). The agency's proposed $8.1 million funding increase
> for the CPI in fiscal 2002 builds on recent enhancements made to address
> concerns among many economists that the CPI tended to overstate inflation.
> The CPI plan is the biggest single program increase proposed for the BLS
> as part of the Bush administration's budget. Historically, the CPI has
> been subject to a comprehensive revision and updating of its marketbasket
> of goods and services every 10 years with some adjustments made more
> frequently to reflect changes in the marketplace. In its budget proposal,
> BLS wants to improve the CPI program by working toward "a continuous
> revision" of the outlet and item samples used in the price collection
> process that yields the monthly CPI report. The CPI proposal is the
> largest single program increase proposed for BLS in fiscal year 2002,
> which begins on Oct. 1. Under the plans submitted to Congress, the BLS
> would be funded at a budget authority level of $476.0 million in fiscal
> 2002, which would represent an increase of $25.1 million or 5.6 percent
> from the current level. Technology improvements also are part of the CPI
> funding request. It also includes funding to continue work on all
> initiatives that were first funded in fiscal 2001, including extending
> producer price index coverage to the construction sector, enhancing the
> PPI's service sector coverage, improving the quality of local area
> unemployment statistics and developing new industry labor and multifactor
> productivity series for the service-producing sector. The Daily Labor
> Report also publishes exerpts from the federal budget for fiscal year 2002
> on page E-1, and briefing material for the fiscal year budget on page E-6.
>
> Sometimes temps can hang on while other workers fail, says the "Work Week"
> column in The Wall Street Journal (page A1).Temps sometimes remain because
> finding and training replacements is tough. And some may be vital to
> stripped-down offices, or produce more or better work than some regular
> employees. Also, temps are often paid less than similarly educated
> permanent employees, says the president of the National Association of
> Part Time and Temporary Employees. Still, government data show 273,000
> temp jobs were lost during the past 6 months.
>
> About 23 percent of 1,000 Americans surveyed by Bernard Halane Associates,
> Inc., a New York City career management firm, say they are worried about
> downturns or layoffs in their field ("Work Week" feature, page A1, The
> Wall Street Journal).
>
> Of the 51 metro areas with one million or more people, only seven had
> unemployment rates above February's 4.2% rate, says the Bureau of Labor
> Statistics. Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y., at 5.7%, had the highest rate
> (Wall Street Journal, page A1).
>
> A guide to where the jobs are in The Wall Street Journal (page B1) says
> that even as the number of layoffs rises and nonagricultural payrolls
> suffer their largest one-month drop in a decade -- a decline of 86,000 in
> March -- some jobs remain in hot demand. Some of them are in industries
> that have continued to prosper amid a general economic slowdown, such as
> construction and health care. But even in slowing sectors and in
> companies that are laying off batches of workers, high tech positions and
> jobs involving specialized skills are often still sacred. "Layoffs
> generally aren't occurring across the board," says a spokesman for William
> M. Mercer, Inc. a management consulting firm. "Most companies are working
> hard to keep their core competencies, and a lot are still placing their
> bet on technology to stay efficient. You won't see layoffs in IT because
> companies spend so much effort to get these folks." Some of the employees
> who likely have no need to worry are: engineers, construction workers,
> high-tech/technical workers, nurses/health care workers, specialty vehicle
> workers, retail sales and distribution workers, and various specialized
> workers.
>
> After years of watching companies hire and spend, employees are suffering
> from flagging morale wrought by the dramatic economic slowdown. Job
> insecurity is triggering politicking and competitiveness among co-workers.
> Employees report that trust in management is waning. And even at
> companies unscathed by layoffs, workers are distracted as their financial
> worth plummets with the stock market. Employees worry shortened
> workweeks, telecommuting, job sharing and other work-life initiatives will
> be scrapped as firms cut costs (USA Today, page 1B).
>
> President Bush yesterday proposed that the nation's 1.8 million federal
> civilian workers receive a 3.6 percent pay raise for the coming fiscal
> year, frustrating lawmakers and unions who are pushing for parity with the
> 4.6 percent hike planned for the military. The gap between the proposed
> pay raises disappointed federal employee unions, who have been pushing not
> only for equal footing with the military, but also for a closing of the
> divide with the private sector, where salaries for comparable jobs are 32
> percent higher on average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics
> (Washington Post, page A8).
>
> DUE OUT TOMORROW: U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes, March 2001
>
application/ms-tnef
