BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2002: RELEASED TODAY: The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods edged up 0.1 percent in January, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. This increase follows a 0.6-percent drop in December and a 0.5-percent decline in November. At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by intermediate goods manufacturers fell 0.1 percent, following a 0.8-percent decline in the prior month. The crude goods index increased 3.7 percent after decreasing 9.6 percent in December. With the release of January 2002 data, BLS updated the value weights used to calculate Producer Price Indexes to more accurately reflect recent production and marketing patterns. The new weights are based on shipment values for the year 1997 published by the Census Bureau. From January 1996 through December 2001, Producer Price Index weights were based on 1992 census shipment values.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has posted data on job patterns for minorities and women in private industry for the year 2000 on its Web site, http://www.eeoc.gov. The information is compiled from EEO-1 reporting forms, collected annually from private employers with 100 or more employees or federal contractors with 50 or more employees. The tables include breakdowns in nine job categories: officials and managers, professionals, technicians, sales workers, office and clerical workers, craft workers, operatives, laborers, and service workers. Numbers are broken down by gender and also reported in six racial/ethnic categories: white, minority, black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaska Native. Along with the aggregate numbers in each category, the postings provide participation rates that examine how a particular group (compared to other groups) is represented within a job category. A nationwide table, as well as individual tables for the 50 states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan areas, and for standard industrial classifications have been posted on the Web (Daily Labor Report, page A-2). New claims for Unemployment Insurance benefits for the week ending February 9 decreased by 8,000 to 373,000, down from the previous week's revised figure of 381,000. "Jobless claims data suggests that the labor market is stabilizing," said Gerald Cohen, senior economist at Merrill Lynch (Daily Labor Report, page D-6; The Washington Post, page E2; The New York Times, Bloomberg News, page C14). Posting its fifth consecutive decline, the Bureau of National Affairs Wage Trend Indicator predicts that lackluster job growth will help hold annual wage increases below 4 percent through the end of the year. The index is now at its lowest level since the fourth quarter of 1996. As the economy begins to recover from the recession that began last March, most forecasters expect job growth to be sluggish until the pace of overall expansion accelerates later this year. The Wage Trend Indicator is designed to predict changes in private industry wages as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' employment cost index (ECI) (Daily Labor Report, page D-1). Three reports out this morning gave investors an indication of the health of the industrial sector as well as consumer sentiment. Industrial production edged down by just 0.1 percent in January, the best showing in 6 months, a sign that the nation's battered manufacturing sector may be pulling out of a long slump. The tiny decline reported by the Federal Reserve Friday came after output at the nation's factories, mines and utilities dropped by 0.3 percent in December. Meanwhile, consumer sentiment fell for the first time in 5 months in early February as a sluggish stock market and a stubbornly pessimistic assessment of current conditions denied hopes for a vigorous recovery. The University of Michigan's preliminary February consumer sentiment index fell to 90.9 from 93.0 in January, much lower than consensus forecasts for a rise to 93.4. Factory output was unchanged in January, after decreases in 14 of the last 15 months. A substantial rebound in steel production was one of the factors preventing another drop in manufacturing production, the Federal Reserve said. In another report, wholesale inflation edged up 0.1 percent in January, reflecting higher prices for gasoline, cars, and some food products, the Labor Department said. The latest Producer Price Index figures represented a better reading on inflation at the wholesale level than many analysts were expecting. Many had forecast a 0.2 percent rise in overall wholesale prices for last month and a 0.1 percent advance in the core rate. Forecasters had expected overall wholesale prices to show a rise for last month because energy prices -- while still moderate -- had crept up (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14994-2002Feb15.html). U.S. business inventories fell in December to the lowest level in 2 years -- another sign the economy is working out the excesses of the late 1990s boom and readying for a turnaround, analysts said. The business inventories data showed manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers overall recorded a 0.4 percent decline in the value of goods on their shelves in December. Also, the Labor Department said import prices rose 0.4 percent in January (Bloomberg News and Reuters, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000011643feb15.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines% 2Dheadlines%2Dbusiness).
<<application/ms-tnef>>
