BLS DAILY REPORT, MONDAY, JUNE 29, 1998
Americans' personal income rose a robust 0.5 percent in May, but savings
slipped to 3.5 percent, according to the Commerce Department. Wages and
salaries gained 0.6 percent in May, after a 0.4 percent advance in
April.... Wages and salaries gained 0.6 percent in May, after a 0.4
percent advance in April.... Wages and salaries in manufacturing were
virtually unchanged in May, after edging up 0.1 percent in April.
Conversely, wages and salaries in the service industry jumped 0.8
percent in May. Analysts expect wages and salaries in manufacturing to
fall off in coming months because of the strike at General Motors....
(Daily Labor Report, page D-1) _____Consumer spending accelerated in
May, while incomes rose, demonstrating the economy's firm underpinnings
as brisk domestic demand offset the impact of the Asian slowdown on
manufacturers. Ample job opportunities kept incomes rising steadily
last month. Not only were wages and salaries higher than in April, but
business owners' profits, incomes from renting property, and dividends
from investments were also higher in May.... (New York Times, June 27,
page B2)_____The economy's main engine kept humming in May as consumer
spending jumped 0.6 percent from the prior month, the biggest rise since
February. Continued healthy household spending has been a major reason
for this year's rapid growth, helping offset the drop in exports and
some weakness in manufacturing resulting from the Asian crisis....
(Wall Street Journal, page A2)_____Factory wages stagnated, in a hint of
spillover from Asia's economic turmoil. Wages and salaries, which
account for more than half of Americans' income, rose 0.6 percent....
(USA Today, page 1B).
Women and blacks gain in educational levels. The proportion of women
completing college has topped that of men, and the lead is widening. At
the same time, young blacks have almost caught up with whites in the
percentages graduating from high school, according to the Census
Bureau.... (Washington Post, page A7)_____The gap between the numbers
of blacks and whites who earn college degrees, though narrowing, remains
relatively wide, suggesting that income equality between the races is
unlikely to occur in the near future.... (Wall Street Journal, page
A2).
The Wall Street Journal's feature "Tracking the Economy" forecasts that
the unemployment rate for June, to be released Thursday, will be 4.4
percent, in comparison with May's 4.3 percent. An increase of 200,000
is forecast for nonfarm payrolls.
The impact of health care costs and rising salary inequality pose a far
greater threat to future living standards than the impending retirement
of the baby boom generation, according to a study released by the
Economic Policy Institute. EPI economist Dean Baker uses projections
from the Social Security Trustees report and from the Health Care
Financing Administration to suggest that the retirement of the baby
boomer generation will not place a significant tax burden on the working
population in the first decades of the next century.... (Daily Labor
Report, page A-6).
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