BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1997 Home health care workers face a much higher risk of injuries than nurses, orderlies, and other workers employed in health care facilities, BLS reports. Injured home health care workers also missed more time from work because of their injuries, according to BLS summary sheet Issues in Labor Statistics No. 97-4. The leading cause of injury for home health care workers is overexertion resulting from assisting patients -- typically through attempts at moving patients without assistance from other workers .... (Daily Labor Report, page A-4). While strong economic growth and progress in other areas have improved the labor market situation for blacks, policy-makers should continue looking at a mix of policies that include education and training as well as possible tax incentives, says Labor Department chief economist Edward Montgomery at a conference sponsored by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Montgomery underscores that, although the gap has narrowed between blacks and whites in the labor market, there is still much higher joblessness among blacks ....(Daily Labor Report, page A11). OMB officially unveiled the new industry classification system called the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) yesterday. It replaces the more than 60-year-old Standard Industrial Classification System and will be implemented by federal administrative and statistical agencies. It will enable NAFTA partners to have more comparable economic and financial data. OMB said NAICS is scheduled to go into effect with data for 1997 in Canada and the United States and with data for 1998 in Mexico. This year, the Census Bureau will implement NAICS when it conducts the 1997 Economic Census, with the first data from this survey to be issued in early 1999 (Daily Labor Report, page A12). Employers announced they were cutting 50,182 jobs in March, the largest number of layoffs planned since January 1996, according to a report released by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., an outplacement firm that tracks job-cut announcements. The March jobs-cut announcements bring the total of proposed layoffs in the first quarter of 1997 to 134,257, a 17 percent jump from the fourth quarter of 1996. However, the first quarter of 1997 had 20.4 percent fewer job cuts than in the first quarter of 1996 ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-3; Washington Post, page C9). Female entrepreneurs in the 1990s are having more success than ever before in starting businesses and getting commercial credit and are as optimistic about their business prospects as their male counterparts, according to the Census Bureau. A survey of 29,000 business owners nationwide found that slightly more than 18 percent of firms started from 1991 to 1994 were owned by women. That was a significant improvement from the 12 percent figure for firms launched before 1980. The survey, conducted in 1994, was limited to companies with at least one employee, excluding "mom-and-pop" operations ....(Washington Post, page C10). The Census Bureau said that nearly one in 10 people in the United States is foreign-born, the highest rate in more than 50 years. At 24.5 million, the number of foreign-born inhabitants stands at the highest level in U.S. history and is about 2 million more than reported in the previous such survey in 1994. In proportional terms, the foreign-born accounted for 9.3 percent of the total U.S. population, well below the high mark this century of 14.7 percent in 1910 but nearly double the rate since the low point in 1970 and continuing an upward trend since then. The Census Bureau report was based on a March 1996 survey that included legal and illegal immigrants, naturalized citizens, students, and temporary workers ....The bureau reported that the foreign-born are more likely than natives to live in poverty, to be unemployed, to use welfare, and to have less than a high school education. On the other hand, the report said, the longer the immigrants stay here, the better they fare ....(Washington Post, page A18). Wall Street economists increasingly are calling on their firms' securities analysts -- not for stock tips, but for fresh information about the health of the economy. Although they still rely on government statistics and other data to make their forecasts, economists at major securities firms recently have begun looking for more immediate, anecdotal evidence about the economy. And in most cases, the easiest place to find it is in-house ....The increased use of analysts partly reflects the growing concern among economists that government statistics are often unreliable and subject to major revision ....Lately, what analysts have been saying confirms what the government data indicate: continued expansion and rising wages, but surprisingly few signs that corporate America is able to raise prices ....(Wall Street Journal, page A2). A surge in sales kept wholesalers' inventories flat in February and left them with their lowest supply levels in more than 12 years, the Commerce Department said ....Sales were especially brisk for costly and long-lasting durable goods ....(Washington Post, page C11). Two months after the world's major economic powers suggested they wanted to brake the dollar's ascent on foreign exchange markets, the dollar has risen this week to new highs against both the Japanese yen and the German mark ....The dollar's renewed strength is evoking some unease among economists about whether the authorities can keep it under control. Although a strong dollar benefits consumers by lowering the cost of imported goods and overseas travel, it hurts U.S. manufacturers by making their products more expensive -- and less competitive -- overseas ....(Washington Post, page C9).
