> BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2001:
>
> RELEASED TODAY: In September, 219 metropolitan areas recorded
> unemployment rates below the U.S. average (4.7 percent, not seasonally
> adjusted), and 106 areas posted higher rates, the Bureau of Labor
> Statistics reports. Eight metropolitan areas recorded rates below 2.0
> percent, including three areas in North Dakota and three elsewhere in the
> Midwest. Three areas reported jobless rates over 10.0 percent in
> September.
>
> The economy, battered by a yearlong slowdown and the jolt of the terrorist
> attacks, shrank at a 0.4 percent rate from July through September. The
> decline could signal the end to the longest economic expansion in U.S.
> history. The drop in the gross domestic product -- the total output of
> goods and services produced in this country -- was the biggest since the
> first quarter of 1991, when the country was in the depths of the last
> recession, the Commerce Department reported today. The weak performance
> reflected a sharp pullback in spending by consumers, which slowed to the
> weakest pace in more than 8 years, and a continued plunge in investment by
> businesses in new plants and equipment
> (http://www.nandotimes.com/business/story/161216p-1532224c.html).
>
> Consumer confidence fell 11.5 points in October to its lowest level in 7
> years, according to a report by the New York-based Conference Board. The
> index fell for the fourth consecutive month, and now stands at 85.5, down
> from 97.0 in September. In addition, the rating of current business
> conditions was not as positive in October as in September (Daily Labor
> Report, page A-2; The New York Times, page C4).
>
> Consumer confidence plunged this month to the lowest level in 7 years,
> raising new concerns about whether consumers worried about their jobs and
> terrorist attacks may reduce their spending at a time when the U.S.
> economy is already faltering (John M. Berry, The Washington Post, page E1;
> The Wall Street Journal, page A2).
>
> New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi predicts that New York will lose
> 100,000 jobs by year's end. Unemployment, as tracked by the state Labor
> Department, has jumped from 5 percent to 6.3 percent in 2 months (the
> national rate is 4.9 percent) -- and those figures don't yet take into
> account the effect of the World Trade Center disaster. About 12,000
> workers applied for unemployment last week, up from fewer than 6,000 in
> the same week last year (The Washington Post, page A1, in an article on
> the double blow of recession and terrorism on New York).
>
> An index of newspaper help-wanted ads declined in all regions in September
> from a year earlier, dropping to the lowest level since 1983. Most
> striking was the broad-based nature of the decline, showing that virtually
> no area has been spared employment cutbacks that were already mounting
> before the September 11 terrorist attacks. It also signals that
> unemployment is likely to continue to rise at least through early next
> year, says Ken Goldstein, an economist at the Conference Board, which
> compiles the measure of ads in 51 metro areas. South Atlantic states
> fared worst, due partly to a drop in Atlanta-area construction and
> cutbacks in jobs related to travel. Two smaller regions, the Plains and
> East South Central, did better in part because they're more sheltered from
> the downturns that hit technology companies and exporters suffering from
> declining overseas demand. Indianapolis was one of the few metros to post
> a gain in help-wanted ads (The Wall Street Journal, page B8B).
>
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