RELEASED TODAY: Employers initiated 1,460 mass layoff actions in March 2002, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 161,336. Compared with March 2001, the number of layoff events declined by 4 percent and the number of claimants fell by 6 percent. This was the third time in the last four months that layoff events and related initial claims declined over the year. However, from January through March 2002, the total number of events, at 4,989, and initial claims, at 564,141, were higher than in January-March 2001 (4,550 and 544,717, respectively).
During the recession year of 2001 nearly all states recorded the smallest per capita income gains in many years, according to figures released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. For the nation as a whole, per capita income grew by 2.7 percent last year, to $30,271, less than half the 5.8 percent gain posted in 2000. It was the smallest annual increase in per capita income since the 1990-91 recession, the agency said (Daily Labor Report, page D-1). The late 1990s, with dot-com millionaires and chief executives bathing in stock options, were good to the nation's wealthiest families. But a growing of research suggests that workers with the lowest incomes fared better, too, although that might not last for long. The latest evidence comes from a report by a pair of left-leaning Washington think tanks, which are pushing to change tax laws to make them more beneficial to poor and moderate-income families. The report, "Pulling Apart: A State-by-State Analysis of Income Trends," shows that after surging during the 1980s and early 1990s, the gap between the rich and poor narrowed a bit at the very end of the decade. Examining Census Bureau data on pretax household income, the two think tanks, the Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, found that the top 20% of American families on average earned $9.99 for every dollar earned by the bottom 20% in 1998 through 2000. When the groups conducted a similar study two years ago, the ratio was $10.58 for every dollar. Behind the change was a rise in incomes among the nation's poorest families. During the late 1990s, household income among the poorest families rose 10.3% to an average of $14,232, while incomes among top earners rose 8.2% to an average of $155,527 (The Wall Street Journal, page A2). DUE OUT TOMORROW: Employment Cost Index--March 2002
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