> BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2001: > > RELEASED TODAY: The Bureau of Labor Statistics announces the release of > national employment and wage estimates for wage and salary workers from > the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey. Legal, management, > and computer and mathematical occupations are the highest paying > occupations. The OES survey is a federal-state cooperative program > between BLS and State Employment Security Agencies (SESAs). > > Of four key economic indicators, personal income continues to rise, while > the other three are behaving in the pattern of past recessions, the > National Bureau of Economic Research says. The NBER's Business Cycle > Dating Committee is the official arbiter of when recessions begin and end. > The committee has not yet had a meeting, but the Cambridge, Mass.-based > NBER earlier this year began posting monthly bulletins on its Web site in > response to inquiries about the state of the economy. In its latest memo > dated November 9 and posted on the Web Nov. 13, the NBER said employment, > industrial production and manufacturing, and retail trade sales all have > fallen substantially. "Among the four indicators, only income has behaved > differently from recession averages over the past seven months," the NBER > said (Daily Labor Report page A-5). > > The six economists who determine when recessions official begin and end > have publicly mentioned March for the first time as the month in which the > longest economic expansion in American history "possibly" ended and the > current recession "possibly" began. Until now, the committee had not > publicly mentioned a possible starting date for the recession. The > decision will probably come very soon. (Louis Uchitelle in The New York > Times, page C2). > > Gasoline prices fell in all regions for the week ended November 2 compared > with a year earlier, with the national average reaching the lowest level > since August 1999, according to the "Economic Focus" feature of The Wall > Street Journal (page B8). All regions benefited from expanded production > by non-OPEC oil-producing countries despite slumping global demand. > Midwestern motorists, who with their Southern counterparts generally enjoy > lower prices because of lower state gas taxes, saw even steeper price > declines compared with last year. One reason: Prices a year ago were > inflated by supply shortages caused by refinery outages, says Stephen > Thumb, principal with industry analyst Energy Ventures Analysis Inc., > Arlington, Va. > > DUE OUT TOMORROW: Extended Mass Layoffs in the Third Quarter of 2001 >
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