BLS DAILY REPORT, MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 1997 The pay gap that separates college and high school educated workers favors only college graduates whose literacy skills are commensurate with their educational level, according to a report in the July issue of the BLS "Monthly Labor Review." The authors -- Frederic L. Pryor, a professor of economics at Swarthmore College, and David Schaffer, an assistant professor of economics at Haverford College -- say they have solved the seeming paradox of why so many university educated workers are taking high school skill-level jobs, while the wages of college educated workers are rising. Those with a university education working in occupations in which most had less than a university education had lower functional literacy than employees with a higher education who are working in jobs commensurate with that education, the authors say ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-9; reprint of article, page E-71). The fourth quarter of 1997 should have the most robust hiring of any final quarter since 1978, according to the results of a survey by Manpower, Inc. The Milwaukee-based temporary help firm found that 28 percent of respondents will be searching for additional workers in the final quarter of the year, while only 7 percent plan cutbacks. Sixty percent expect no change in payrolls, and 5 percent are not yet certain ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-7; Washington Post, Aug. 24, page H4). The health of the Washington region's economy depends greatly on its ability to keep churning out more technology jobs, according to a study by Wefa Inc., an Eddystone, Pa., consulting firm. Wefa's analysis shows that across the country, regions with strong technology clusters have led the way in overall job growth this decade, with only a few exceptions, including Orlando and Las Vegas, where entertainment and tourism are booming ....(Washington Post, Aug. 23, page C2). An economy that continues to serve up pleasant surprises can add one more to the menu: U.S. exports are hitting new highs. The surprise part is that exports are setting those records just as the dollar is on the rise, making U.S. goods and services more expensive for foreign buyers. Economies overseas are showing signs of a pickup, and the demand for U.S.-made capital goods is on the rise ....(Wall Street Journal, page A2). The cost to employers of retirement benefits for employees has risen slightly, KPMG Peat Marwick found in its 1997 Retirement Benefits Survey. Retirement benefit costs weighed in at 7.06 percent of total payroll in 1997, compared with a previous high of 6.75 percent found in the group's 1993 and 1994 surveys ....The results also show evidence of the trend in the marketplace toward defined contribution plans ....In conducting the survey, KPMG had professional pollsters interview 1,251 employers of 200 or more employees ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-8). DUE OUT TOMORROW: State and Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment: July 1997
