> BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 2001:
>
> RELEASED TODAY: The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)
> increased 0.5 percent in May, before seasonal adjustment, to a level of
> 177.7 (1982-84=100), the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department
> of Labor reported today. For the 12-month period ended in May, the CPI-U
> increased 3.6 percent. The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners
> and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) also rose 0.5 percent in May, prior to
> seasonal adjustment. The May level of 174.4 was 3.7 percent higher than
> the index in May 2000. Real average weekly earnings rose 0.2 percent from
> April to May after seasonal adjustment, according to preliminary data
> released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A 0.3 percent gain in
> average hourly earnings and a 0.3 percent increase in average weekly hours
> were partly offset by a 0.3 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index for
> Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).
>
> Consumer inflation rose in May, largely reflecting a big jump in gasoline
> and electricity costs. Manufacturing activity plunged for the eighth
> month in a row. The Labor Department reported that its Consumer Price
> Index, the government's most closely watched inflation gauge, climbed by a
> seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent last month, following a 0.3 percent
> increase in April. The Federal Reserve said industrial output at the
> nation's factories, mines and utilities fell by 0.8 percent in May, a drop
> double what analysts were predicting, and the worst showing since January.
> Operating capacity plummeted to 77.4 percent in May, the lowest level
> since August 1983 (Jeannine Aversa, The Associated Press,
> http://www0.mercurycenter.com/breaking/headline2/015639.htm;
> http://www.nandotimes.com/business/story/27092p-482692c.html;
> http://www.nypost.com/apstories/V2007.htm;
> http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/businessnews/article/0,2669,ART-524
> 59,FF.html).
>
> The Producer Price Index rose just 0.1 percent in May, as declining prices
> for food and capital equipment offset a sharp rise in cigarette prices,
> the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported June 14 (Daily Labor Report, page
> D-1).
>
> Inflation at the wholesale level inched up in May, as falling prices for a
> variety of food items blunted rising costs for electricity and heating
> oil, the government reported (The Washington Post, page E2).
>
> Prices paid to producers rose less than expected in May, restrained by
> lower costs for food, autos and computers, the Labor Department reports.
> Separate reports showed that business sales declined for a second month in
> April and that claims for unemployment benefits held at close to a 9-year
> high last week (Bloomberg News, The New York Times, page C9).
>
> The number of new claims filed with state agencies for unemployment
> insurance benefits dropped during the week ending June 9, down 12,000 to
> 428,000, according to figures released June 14 by the Labor Department's
> Employment and Training Administration (Daily Labor Report, page D-2).
>
> Declining for two consecutive quarters from its recent peak, the Wage
> Trend Indicator is pointing toward an easing of wage pressures by the end
> of the year, according to the latest WTI report released by the Bureau of
> National Affairs. The WTI's revised reading for the second quarter is
> 100.50, down from 100.71 in the first quarter 2001 and 100.85 for the
> fourth quarter of 2000 (second quarter 1976=100). "Clearly, the WTI has
> declined from its peak of last year, suggesting that in 6 to 9 months we
> should see some easing of wage pressures," economist Joel Popkin said.
> His consulting firm, Joel Popkin & Co., developed the measure for BNA
> (Daily Labor Report, page D-1).
>
> After riding out a protracted decline, the nation's hard-hit manufacturing
> sector is now "bottoming out," and "poised for a modest recovery" in the
> fourth quarter, said the National Association of Manufacturers' top
> official. Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.
> sounded a similar positive note today, telling a Dutch audience that the
> economic benefits from the Fed's recent series of interest rate cuts will
> begin to take hold "towards the end of this year or the beginning of next
> year." The Labor Department's Producer Price Index for May shows that
> "inflation remains very subdued if not altogether absent from the U.S.
> economy," according to Economy.com's Thorsten Fischer. As a result, the
> economist said, "the Fed can continue its looser monetary policy without
> fear of driving the price level up too much" (James P. Miller, Tribune
> staff reporter.
> http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/businessnews/article/0,2669,ART-524
> 33,FF.html).
>
> The nation's factories, mines and utilities in May operated at their
> lowest rate of capacity use in more than 17 years, the Federal Reserve
> said in its latest report on industrial production. The numbers
> underscore the fragility of the U.S. manufacturing sector, which has been
> shedding workers at a rapid pace during the current economic slowdown.
> Factory payrolls slipped 124,000 in May (Reuters
> http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2001-06-15-ip.htm).
>
> A closely watched barometer of U.S. consumer sentiment edged lower in
> early June after rising in May, suggesting consumers still feel nervous
> about a slowing economy and mounting corporate layoffs. The University of
> Michigan's preliminary June consumer sentiment index, which gives an early
> read on consumers' attitudes about the economy during the month, fell to
> 91.6 from 92.0 in May, market sources said Friday. But the June reading
> was still far above the 88.4 scored in April and was only slightly lower
> than consensus forecasts for 91.9 (Reuters
> http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2001-06-15-sentiment.htm).
>
> An estimated 600,000 jobs for information technology workers in the United
> States are unfilled, and nearly 25 percent of technology managers say that
> retaining employees is their biggest problem, according to the META Group,
> a technology research firm based in Stamford, Conn. The labor market was
> even tighter a year ago, though, before the economy slowed. META
> calculated then that a million technology jobs were unfilled and 40
> percent of the managers rated hanging onto workers as their dominant
> concern. The projections are based on an annual survey of 500 large
> American companies (The New York Times, page C10).
>
> The typical female worker in a union shop earns $157 -- or 38 percent --
> more a week than a female in a nonunion shop. But even in union shops,
> employees can freelance for raises above scale, and what they get is a
> closely held secret. In 1960, women with full-time jobs on average earned
> 60.6 percent of what men earned. In 1998, it was about 76 percent. By
> 1999, that figure had dropped back to 72 percent. A 1998 study by
> Catalyst, a research organization, found that top-earning women in Fortune
> 500 companies on average earned 68 cents to every dollar earned by their
> male counterparts. Judy Mann of The Washington Post concludes in her page
> C8 article, "Unequal pay costs families of working women $4,000 on average
> a year. A 25-year-old stands to lose $523,000 over her working lifetime
> because of unequal pay.
>
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