BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2002: RELEASED TODAY: Reflecting the economic downturn that began early in 2001, the proportion of families containing an unemployed member rose by nearly a percentage point to 6.6 percent between 2000 and 2001, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Of the nation's 72 million families, the share with at least one employed member fell by 0.3 percentage point to 82.9 percent in 2001. These data on employment, unemployment, and family relationships are collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of about 60,000 households. Families include married-couple families, as well as families maintained by a man or a woman with no spouse present.
Mass layoff events totaled 1,383 in February, resulting in job losses for 138,984 workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of mass layoff events declined from January, when 2,146 events resulted in 263,821 initial claimants for unemployment insurance -- the highest amount of January claimants since the series began in April 1995 (Daily Labor Report, page D-15). New claims for unemployment insurance benefits filed during the week ending March 23 totaled 394,000, an increase of 18,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 376,000, according to the Employment and Training Administration of the Department of Labor. The less volatile, more closely watched 4-week moving average increased 3,250 to 383,500 for the period ended March 23, from the previous week's revised average of 380,250, ETA said. The proportion of the workforce receiving unemployment benefits was 2.7 percent, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised figure for the week ending March 16 (Daily Labor Report, page D-12; The New York Times, page C11). The Help-Wanted Advertising index increased four points to 51 in February, but remains down from a year ago, according to the Conference Board. In the last 3 months, help-wanted advertising increased in seven out of nine U.S. regions. The largest increase, 46.9 percent, occurred in the East North Central region, which includes newspapers in Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Detroit. In the Mountain region of Denver, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City, the rate increased 33.9 percent (Daily Labor Report, page A-3). Consumers spent heavily in February, as their incomes increased solidly -- more signs that the U.S. economy is gaining strength after a brief recession. The Commerce Department reports that spending by consumers, which accounts for two-thirds of all economic activity in the United States, increased 0.6 percent last month after jumping 0.5 percent in January. At the same time, Americans' incomes, which include wages, interest, and government benefits, also increased by 0.6 percent, the largest expansion since October 2000. Incomes rose 0.5 percent in January. The data reinforces economists' view that the recession, which began last March, has ended and probably will turn out to be the country's mildest downturn ever (Leigh Strope, Associated Press, http:www.nypost.com/apstories/business/VO702.htm). U.S. consumer spending grew briskly in February as incomes rose at the fastest pace since December 2000, the government said today, as the nascent economic recovery picked up speed. U.S. consumer spending increased 0.6 percent last month to $7.25 billion after a 0.5 percent gain in January. Meanwhile, personal income also grew 0.6 percent in February to total $8.88 billion after a 0.5 percent rise in January. Both figures surpassed the expectations of private analysts (Caren Bohan, Reuters, http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/business/2960424.htm). For the fourth straight year, prescription drug spending rose more than 17 percent in 2001, driven in large measure by a few heavily advertised, high-priced medications, a nonpartisan study released yesterday found. Sales of prescription medication at retail stores and through mail-order companies totaled $175.2 billion last year, an increase of $27 billion over 2000, according to the National Institute for Health Care Management. The institute is a private, nonprofit research organization led by physicians, insurance executives, and policymakers from both parties (The Washington Post, page A1; The New York Times, page A18; The Wall Street Journal, page A3; Theresa Agovino, The Associated Press, http://www.nypost.com/apstories/business/V0025.htm). The gap in homeownership rates between native-born Americans and immigrants grew in the 1980s and 1990s to 20 percentage points, according to a survey by the Research Institute for Housing America, an independent arm of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. But the study also found that the longer immigrants stay in the United States, the more likely they are to become homeowners. While 67 percent of native-born households owned their own homes in 2000, 47 percent of all immigrant households were homeowners. That difference of 20 percentage points was up from a gap of about 15 percentage points in 1990 and from 12 points in 1980, said the study by Professor George Borjas of the Kennedy School of Public Policy and Harvard University. The gap increased, according to the study, because of the growth in the number of immigrants and the rise in the percentage of poorer immigrants. The study was drawn from data collected by the Census Bureau (http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/business/2959301.htm).
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