> BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1999
>
> U.S. employers laid off 80,134 workers in 878 mass layoff events in
> February, BLS reports. Both the number of mass layoff events and the
> number of workers affected were a little lower than in February 1998. ...
> (Daily Labor Report, page D-5).
>
> A majority of defense workers displaced in the massive downsizing of
> 1987-97 now work at jobs that pay less and have fewer skill requirements,
> according to a joint study by the Economic Policy Institute and Rutgers
> University. A "sizable minority" of displaced defense workers experienced
> a decline in earnings of 50 percent or more in their new jobs, according
> to the report, "A Just Transition? Lessons from Defense Worker Adjustment
> in the 1990s". Some 1.4 million defense workers lost their jobs during
> the decade ending in 1997, the single largest group displaced from U.S.
> private industry during this period, the report said. ... The report's
> authors, Rutgers University economists Laura Powers and Ann Markusen,
> concluded that Pentagon efforts to encourage defense mergers, subsidize
> arms exports, and reward contractors for layoffs have undercut efforts to
> place former defense workers (Daily Labor Report, page A-3).
>
> Workplace fatalities in small-scale mines are up to 90 times higher in
> developing countries than in industrialized countries, and a significant
> number of these mines are operating without government authorization,
> according to an ILO report. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A-3).
>
> Yesterday, all eyes were on the Federal Reserve's top policymakers as they
> shifted ever so slightly toward raising interest rates should the
> supercharged economy fail to slow and inflation gather more steam.
> Interest costs for millions of Americans have risen from the lows reached
> last fall, and many economists believe the Fed is only catching up with
> the view they hold that borrowing costs and inflation are unlikely to dip
> back down any time soon to the levels reached in late 1998. ...
> (Washington Post, page E1; New York Times, page A1; Wall Street Journal,
> page A2).
>
> New home construction starts fell in April to their lowest levels in a
> year after surging in the first quarter. Starts fell 10.1 percent last
> month, the Commerce Department says. The decline came after a 0.1 percent
> drop in March and was widespread, with starts falling in all regions
> except the West. ... (New York Times, page C12; Daily Labor Report, page
> D-1)_____Construction of new homes plummeted 10.1 percent in April, the
> sharpest decline in more than 5 years. ... (Wall Street Journal, page
> A2).
>
> __In the first sign that the cost of health care insurance could rise 9 to
> 11 percent again next year, the nation's second-biggest buyer of health
> benefits said it had agreed to an average increase of 9.7 percent in
> premiums for California's state and local government workers. ... (New
> York Times, page C12; Wall Street Journal, page A6).
> __Rising rates for health care insurance show that HMOs are no cure-all
> for high costs, says USA Today on its editorial page. Last year,
> insurance costs rose 6 percent, and they are expected to hit 9 percent his
> year, according to benefit consulting firm William M. Mercer Inc. Next
> year will likely be the same, if not worse, analysts interviewed by USA
> Today predict. All at a time when overall inflation is barely
> registering. This trend is especially bedeviling for the 87 percent of
> privately insured Americans who get coverage at work. That's because of
> two strategies employers are pursuing to limit costs. (1)Workers are
> paying more. In the past, employees were largely insulated from insurance
> price hikes, since most got their health insurance "free" from work or
> paid next to nothing for it. No more. Today, two-thirds of employees pay
> something for insurance. And their cost burden is climbing -- to about 20
> percent of premiums today compared to 10 percent in 1988. ... (2)
> Workers are getting less choice. Only 17 percent of those firms providing
> benefits offer workers a selection of plans. Fewer still offer a choice
> at smaller firms, which are girding for the biggest premium increases. ...
>
>
> DUE OUT TOMORROW: Mass Layoffs in March 1999
>
>
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