> BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2001:
>
> RELEASED TODAY: Median weekly earnings of the nation's 99.1 million
> full-time wage and salary workers were $592 in the first quarter of 2001,
> the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This was 3.0 percent
> higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 3.4 percent in the
> Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) over the same period.
>
> Consumer prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent in March as
> increases in medical costs and home prices overwhelmed a sharp drop in
> energy prices for the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.
> Energy prices, which remain 6.0 percent higher than last year's levels,
> fell 2.1 percent in March as fuel oil prices fell 4.0 percent and gasoline
> prices slipped 3.8 percent (Daily Labor Report, page D-5).
>
> The inflation-adjusted weekly earnings of most U.S. workers on payrolls
> outside of agriculture increased 0.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted
> basis in March, BLS says. Between February and March, average hourly pay
> rose 0.4 percent and average weekly hours climbed 0.3 percent, resulting
> in a 0.7 percent jump in average weekly pay. BLS said because the CPI-W
> was unchanged, the real weekly pay also rose 0.7 percent (Daily Labor
> Report, page D-18).
>
> The Federal Reserve reports a rebound in manufacturing, especially in
> autos, boosted total production of the nation's industrial sector to a 0.4
> percent seasonally adjusted rise in March. But the burst of factory output
> could not make up for a very bleak January and February. As a result, the
> industrial sector -- including manufacturing, mining, and utilities --
> registered a 4.7 percent annualized rate of decline for the first quarter.
> It was the largest quarterly drop since the first quarter of 1991, when
> the economy was in the last phase of the 1990-91 recession (Daily Labor
> Report, page D-22).
>
> The U.S. auto industry began boosting production substantially last month,
> signaling that the worst of the economic slowdown is over for a key part
> of the nation's beleaguered manufacturing sector. The increase in
> automobile and light-truck assemblies was large enough to cause overall
> U.S. industrial production to rise 0.4 percent last month after five
> consecutive monthly declines, the Federal Reserve reports. Many analysts
> had expected yet another drop. Other reports out yesterday on housing
> starts, weekly changes in retail sales and consumer price inflation also
> provided generally positive economic signs. Housing starts fell slightly
> last month, but remained at a relatively high level, the Commerce
> Department reports. Meanwhile, retail sales last week were close to or
> above retailers' expectations as "favorable weather lifted sales of
> seasonal goods, and Easter sales were healthy" says an analyst at Stone &
> McCarthy, a financial markets research firm. Inflation remained tame in
> March. The Labor Department reported that consumer prices rose only 0.1
> percent last month after much larger increases in January and February.
> The "core" portion of the consumer price index, which excludes food and
> energy items, increased 0.2 percent (John M. Berry in The Washington Post,
> page E1).
>
> Cheaper energy kept inflation tame in March, while manufacturing perked up
> modestly, separate reports showed today. A series of government and
> industry reports indicated some stability was returning to a few economic
> sectors after a volatile first quarter in which natural gas prices soared
> and many manufacturing industries continued to struggle. Prices, as
> measured by the CPI, edged up 0.1 percent last month after an increase of
> 0.3 percent in February as energy prices declined 2.1 percent, the Labor
> Department said. A sharp increase in car assemblies pushed industrial
> production up 0.4 percent in March -- its first increase in 6 months --
> after a 0.4 percent decline in February, the Federal Reserve said (Reuters
> in The New York Times, page C13).
>
> Industrial output rose unexpectedly in March, raising some hopes that the
> long suffering manufacturing sector has hit bottom and may be ready to
> rebound. But despite the 0.4 percent gain, underlying numbers in the
> Federal Reserve report aren't so clear cut. March's increase, the first
> since September, was led by autos, which had sunk to severely depressed
> levels, and by technology. But technology's gain may not last long, given
> the grim recent forecasts from the likes of Cisco Systems, Inc. The
> industrial sector began sliding early last fall, before the rest of the
> economy. Separately, the Labor Department said consumer prices rose 0.1
> percent in March from February, their slowest pace in 7 months, thanks to
> a 2.1 percent drop in energy costs. Still, core inflation is running at a
> 3.5 percent annual rate in the first quarter, compared with 2.6 percent
> for all of 2000 (The Wall Street Journal, page A2).
>
> Construction of privately owned single-family homes and apartments fell
> 1.3 percent in March, marking the second monthly drop in a row, the
> Department of Commerce says. Despite the back-to-back drops, analysts said
> housing is holding up, one sector of the economy where demand is solid
> (Daily Labor Report, page D-1).
>
> DUE OUT TOMORROW: Employment Characteristics of Families in 2000
>
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