This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. ------ =_NextPart_000_01BDBFE5.1FBA3A60 charset="iso-8859-1" BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1998: Manufacturing activity slipped for the second month in a row in July, with declines in four key indexes: production, order backlogs, employment, and new export orders, the National Association of Purchasing Management reports. On the other hand, the overall U.S. economy continued to expand, albeit at a slower pace, and manufactures' prices continued to drop, the latest data showed. On the labor front, NAPM's employment index slumped from 47.8 percent to 44.4 percent in July. Only four industries - furniture, food, textiles, and paper - reported hiring gains. As for inflation, NAPM's price index declined at a slightly faster rate in July, receding from 38.4 percent o 38.0 percent. That marked the seventh straight decline and the lowest reading since November 1982, the trade group noted (Daily Labor Report, page A-2; The New York Times, in an Associated Press story, page D2). __While manufacturing faltered, consumers fueled the economy this summer. The problem is, their aggressive spending drove their savings to an all-time low, new data show (The Wall Street Journal, page A2). American's personal income edged up 0.2 percent in June, held down by the UAW strike at General Motors, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. Wages and salaries increased 0.2 percent in June, after jumping 0.6 percent in May. Private industry wages inched up 0.1 percent in June, following a 0.7 percent May gain (Daily Labor Report, page D-1). Figures released by the Commerce Department show that, during June, U.S. consumers shelled out more money than ever - for cars, household appliances, and a host of other goods and services - despite slowed growth in their incomes and a flurry of headlines suggesting that the current expansion finally may be winding down. Personal spending for June rose by an unexpectedly large 0.6 percent. And the government said spending in May rose 0.9 percent, an upward revision of 0.3 percent from its earlier estimate. On an annual basis, consumer spending is up 5 percent (The Washington Post, page E1). __Americans kept spending at a strong pace in June, even though their incomes posted the smallest increase in 3 and a half years. The combination of weak income growth and strong spending pushed the personal savings rate to a record low. Even with the end of the General Motors strike, many economists say economic growth will continue to be slow for the rest of the year as the Asian crisis pushes America's trade deficit to record levels and depresses manufacturing and foreign sales by American farmers (The New York Times, in an Associated Press article, page D2). Internet job ads soar in today's tight labor market. Unisys Corp. posts about 1,200 jobs, using as many as 30 different Web sites. The computer company fills about 5 percent of its needs this way, up from 2 percent a year ago; it cuts its newspaper help-wanted budget to $1 million from $2.5 million last year, even with more openings. Chip maker Texas Instruments, Inc., despite layoffs, expects to get about 15 percent of its specialized U.S. hires through Web-site advertising this year, up 10 percent last year. Economists consider adding Internet job listings to the national help wanted index used in computing economic indicators (The Wall Street Journal "Work Week" column, page 1). An MBA from a top university is a "hot ticket," as pay climbs, says The New York Times, August 2, in a page 1 article. The median offer this year for a new Stanford MBA, for example, was $120,000, more than double the first-year salary at the peak of the '80's, and more than 5 times the 1978 figure. Inflation has been 142 percent over that period. Half the graduates of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania received offers of more than $132,000 this year. At the top 25 schools, the best compensation packages offered to new MBAs are well above $200,000. MBA's from top schools have made an enormous financial commitment. Tuition at these business programs is $25,000 a year for 2 years, 5 times the average for state schools; books, computers and software account for a few thousand dollars more. Labor leaders acknowledge it is impossible to halt globalization, saying their goal is to transform it into a less harmful force, says Steven Greenhouse, in The New York Times, August 2, page WK 3. "Trade unions are trying to shape history, not reverse it," said David A. Smith, director of public policy for the AFL-CIO. And economists point out, globalization sometimes helps push wages up, not down. Boeing and Microsoft, for example, can pay high salaries partly because of the immense foreign demand for their products. Still, concerned that globalization could prove the great downward leveler of wages, union leaders often state that their goal is "upward leveling" - to improve wages and working conditions abroad. "If you raise labor standards in low wage countries, that's good for them and it's good for us," said Frank Borgers, professor of labor relations at the University of Massachusetts. 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[PEN-L:489] BLS Daily Report
Richardson_D Tue, 4 Aug 1998 16:21:49 -0400boundary="---- =_NextPart_000_01BDBFE5.1FBA3A60"