BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1997 RELEASED TODAY: EMPLOYMENT SITUATION -- Employment and unemployment were little changed in August. The jobless rate was 4.9 percent in August; it had been 4.8 percent in July and has shown little movement over the past several months. Nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 49,000 in August, to 122.5 million. This gain would have been closer to the recent growth trend if not for the effects of strike activity during the survey reference period. Workers on strike for the entire reference period are not counted as employed in the survey of establishments because they are not being paid by their employers. In contrast, in the household survey, striking workers and others with unpaid absences are counted as employed .... JEC STATEMENT -- In summary, the large transportation strike held the over-the-month payroll employment gain to just 49,000. The unemployment rate was little changed in August at 4.9 percent. Moonlighting isn't just for lunch-bucket-luggers who need to work extra jobs to make ends meet. Far from it, according to a study in the Labor Department's Monthly Labor Review. Multiple jobholding actually gets more and more common as you move up the education scale, from high school dropouts (3.3 percent) to PhDs (9.4 percent) ....The people with more education probably work extra jobs because their schedule allows it, because their expertise is in demand, or because of financial reasons beyond meeting basic living expenses and paying off debts, says the study's author ....Cutting the data another way -- by income level rather than education -- shows that the rate of multiple jobholding does decline as income rises. But the difference is slight -- from 6.4 percent in the lowest-income fifth of the population to 5.9 percent in the highest (Business Week, Sept. 8, page 26). Initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits edged up by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 326,000 in the week ended Aug. 30, the Labor Department's Employment and Training Administration reports ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-1)_____The jobless claims data for last week were distorted by the effects of retooling of auto assembly lines and by the strike against United Parcel Service, says an economist at MMS International in Belmont, Calif. ....(New York Times, page C2). In response to the results of a survey among 50,000 working women, the AFL-CIO launches a new initiative aimed at addressing several issues of concern for these women, says the Daily Labor Report (page A-3) ....Earlier this year, the AFL-CIO distributed a survey to both union and nonunion women through some 900 organizations, two-thirds of which were union groups and the remainder which were not affiliated with unions. The survey was returned by 50,000 women ....To augment the survey, a scientific telephone survey of 725 working women was conducted by a public opinion research firm ....The results released were based on the telephone survey because the margin of error in the larger survey was "huge" since the women who returned the survey were motivated to fill it out ....Among the specific results: Ninety-nine percent of surveyed women said equal pay for equal work is important, and 32 percent say their own job does not provide equal pay for equal work. Ninety-two percent said job security is important, but only 34 percent said they are protected from layoffs in their current job. Sixty-two percent of working mothers with children under age 6 said child-care is "very important," but only 13 percent of these mothers said their jobs provide child care ...._____The New York Times (page A18) says the telephone survey found that, despite their lower pay, most working women are important breadwinners for their families. Almost two-thirds of working women earn half or more of their family's income ....Even among the married women, 52 percent reported that they contributed half or more of their household's income. BLS statistics show that working wives, on average, contribute about one-third of their family' total income. But the survey found that two out of every five working women were the sole heads of households. Of those women -- single, divorced, separated, or widowed -- more than one-quarter had dependent children ....The survey found an especially bleak picture of the job situations of women who work part time, a group that accounts for one-quarter of the working women .... New orders for manufactured goods increased 0.2 percent in July, following a 1.7 percent June advance, the Commerce Department's Bureau of the Census reports. Excluding transportation, new orders rose 0.8 percent in July, following a 0.7 percent June gain. In the year-to-date, new orders are 4.9 percent above the same period one year ago ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-3)_____Orders placed with factories unexpectedly increased in July to a record level, a sign that manufacturing could be poised for faster growth ....(New York Times, page C2)_____Factories continued to turn at a faster-than-expected tempo this summer ....(Wall Street Journal, page A2). In discussing the bi-national study on illegal immigration sponsored by the U.S. and Mexican governments, the Washington Post (page A3) reports that U.S. officials said one of the study's most significant results was a recognition by Mexican researchers that the steady exodus of illegal migrants imposes costs not just on the U.S., but on Mexico as well. For years, Mexico has done virtually nothing to stop illegal emigration, tending to view it with ambivalence as a major source of foreign exchange and as an important "safety valve" for a job-scarce economy. However, the study said, the phenomenon also costs Mexico heavily in a "loss of human capital," especially working-age people with some education and good health, which in turn discourages investment and the training of workers in Mexico and tends to keep their communities mired in poverty. In addition, it said, migration is commonly "accompanied by serious problems of family disintegration" and other ills ....
