> BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 2001:
>
> RELEASED TODAY: The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)
> increased 0.3 percent in April, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor
> Statistics reported today. For the 12-month period ended in April, the
> CPI-U increased 3.3 percent. The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage
> Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) rose 0.4 percent in April, seasonally
> adjusted. The April level of 173.5 was 3.3 percent higher than the index
> in April 2000.
> __Real average weekly earnings were about unchanged from March to April
> after seasonal adjustment, according to preliminary data released today by
> the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A 0.4 percent increase in average hourly
> earnings was offset by a 0.4 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index for
> Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Average weekly hours
> were unchanged.
>
> Consumer inflation rose 0.3 percent in April, as gasoline prices posted
> the biggest gain in 7 months and the cost of tobacco increased by the
> largest amount in a year. Clothing prices, however, took their biggest
> plunge in 52 years. The modest advance in the Consumer Price Index, the
> government's most closely watched inflation gauge, followed a 0.1 percent
> increase in March, the Labor Department reported today. April's CPI was a
> slightly better reading on inflation at the consumer level than many
> analysts were expecting. They were forecasting a 0.4 percent rise
> (Associated Press,
> http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/businessnews/article/0,2669,ART-518
> 28,FF.html).
>
> U.S. consumer prices rose more moderately than expected in April, helping
> to give the Federal Reserve some leeway in its aggressive interest-rate
> cutting campaign. The Labor Department said on Wednesday that the
> Consumer Price Index, the main U.S. inflation gauge, rose 0.3 percent last
> month after a 0.1 percent gain in March. The closely watched core CPI,
> which strips out food and energy costs, rose 0.2 percent in April
> following a matching increase in the prior month. U.S. economists in a
> Reuters survey had expected the overall CPI to climb 0.4 percent and the
> core rate to rise 0.2 percent. In the aftermath of the CPI numbers'
> release, some private economists speculated that the Fed might have had
> the data sometime on Tuesday and that possibly this knowledge helped to
> solidify its decision to lower rates half a percentage point, to 4
> percent. "That is wrong," said Bureau of Labor Statistics economist
> Patrick Jackman. "At the time of their meeting, they did not have the CPI
> numbers." Jackman cited strict procedures that govern the handling of the
> major U.S. economic statistics (Reuters,
> http://www.latimes.com/wires/20010516/tCB00a5314.html).
>
> The Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) cut short-term
> interest rates one-half percentage point at a May 15 meeting, noting that
> the risks to the economy remain weighted toward slowing economic growth.
> The move brought the Fed Funds rate -- the interest rate charged for
> overnight loans between banks -- down to 4.0 percent, the lowest it has
> been since April 1994. Although several analysts have voiced concern that
> inflationary pressures are growing, the FOMC said pressures on labor and
> product markets are easing and "inflation is expected to remain
> contained". The Fed also minimized concerns about inflation by saying
> that although measured productivity growth stalled in the first quarter,
> "the impressive underlying rate of increase that developed in recent years
> appears to be largely intact, supporting longer-term prospects" (Daily
> Labor Report, page A-11; The Washington Post, page A1; The New York Times,
> page A1; The Wall Street Journal, page A3).
>
> The New York metropolitan economy, so strong for so long, is finally
> beginning to show signs of strain from the national slowdown. In New
> Jersey, almost 7,000 jobs were lost in April, and the state's unemployment
> rate jumped to 4.2 percent from 3.8 percent the month before, according to
> data released yesterday. In Rockland County, New York, shoppers have cut
> back spending so much that the county fears a $10 million shortfall in
> sales tax collections. In New York City, hotel rooms are increasingly
> empty, and a rising number of workers are filing for unemployment
> insurance benefits. Surveys in the region show that optimism is waning
> among consumers and business executives. Until now, the slowdown has been
> concentrated in areas with a lot of manufacturing; unemployment has surged
> in Michigan and Illinois, for example. In the New York City area,
> factories are scarce, which helps explain why unemployment here has not
> been rising (The New York Times, page A27).
>
> DUE OUT TOMORROW: Extended Mass Layoffs in the First Quarter of 2001
>
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