BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2002: RELEASED TODAY: Most regional and state unemployment rates either rose or were little changed in December, and virtually all were higher than a year earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The national jobless rate edged up to 5.8 percent in December. Nonfarm employment decreased in 35 states and the District of Columbia.
In the recession year of 2001 union membership held steady at a total of 16.3 million across the U.S. economy, according to figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The proportion of wage and salary workers who are union members remained at 13.5 percent -- counting both private and public sector employees. Nearly all industry and occupational categories covered by the BLS figures showed either declining or unchanged shares of union membership last year compared with 2000. About 9.0 percent of private industry wage earners belonged to unions last year, the same as in 2000 (Daily Labor Report, page AA-1; Text E-1; David Ho, Associated Press, http://www.nandotimes.com/business/story/221432p-2139390c.html). The median weekly earnings of full-time U.S. workers in the fourth quarter of 2001 increased 3.4 percent over the previous year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Measured in current dollars, without adjustment for inflation, BLS said the median weekly wages climbed to $605 in the fourth quarter of 2001 from $595 a week in the third quarter (Daily Labor Report, page D-4). New claims for unemployment insurance dropped to its lowest level in 6 months for the week ending January 12, falling 14,000 to 384,000, seasonally adjusted, down from the previous week's revised total of 398,000, according to the Employment and Training Administration (Daily Labor Report, page D-1). The unemployment rate in New York City shot up last month to 7.4 percent from 6.9 percent as more than 10,000 jobs disappeared from the city's battered economy, government officials said yesterday. The December decline brought job losses since the attack on the World Trade Center to more than 100,000 -- a record-breaking drop for a 3 month period that surpassed even the steep decline that began in November of 1990, according to William C. Thompson, Jr., the New York City comptroller. But James P. Brown, the Labor Department's specialist in the New York City economy said he was pleased that there were signs that stores, bars, restaurants and hotels had hired some people in December. The upturn "was quite subdued by our usual standards, but it was there," he said. A report released Wednesday by the Federal Reserve Board found that economic activity "showed further signs of rebounding" in the New York region, while things continued to go downhill in areas like Dallas and San Francisco. One negative sign in New York City was a continued decline in employment on Wall Street, which over the last year had shed almost 22,000 jobs, many of them in the last 3 months. High-paid Wall Street workers pay a lot of taxes, spend a lot of money in stores and restaurants, and keep a lot of other people employed, whether they are computer consultants, golf pros, or taxi drivers (The New York Times, page A20). Evidence continued to accumulate that the recession could be at or near an end, as initial claims for unemployment insurance fell more than economists expected and housing construction showed resistance. At the same time, a survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia indicated that manufacturing activity in the Mid-Atlantic states rose for the first time since November 2000. A Labor Department spokesman said the drop in claims could have been accented by seasonal adjustments that take into account the December holidays when calculating the data. But many economists discounted that concern, noting that the longer term trend suggests a definite firming up of the labor market (The Wall Street Journal, page A2). The Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI industry survey for last quarter still points toward a factory decline through this year's first quarter, but expectations for orders in 2002 jumped (USA Today, page 1B). The U.S. trade deficit narrowed to $27.9 billion in November, as oil imports fell to the lowest level in more than 2 years, the government said today. The Commerce Department reports that the deficit in goods and services narrowed by 4.9 percent from an October imbalance of $29.3 billion (Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press, http://www.nandotimes.com/business/story/222242p-2146451c.html). The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index surged to 94.2 in early January from 88.8 in December. That was much higher than the consensus forecasts of 89.3 and pushed up the index more than 12 points above its recent trough of 81.8 struck after the September 11 attacks (Reuters, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2086-2002Jan18.html).
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