BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1996
_____Sharply higher petroleum prices boosted prices of goods imported into
the United States by 0.5 percent during March, while export prices edged
down 0.1 percent, BLS reports. It was the largest monthly rise in import
prices since May 1995, when oil prices were also a factor ....(Daily Labor
Report, page D-8).
_____The Wall Street Journal (page A2) reports that the Labor Department
reported that a 7.l percent spike in petroleum prices -- the biggest jump in
nearly two years -- sent U.S. import prices up 0.5 percent in March.
Excluding fuels, however, import prices fell 0.4 percent in March due to
widespread price declines for capital goods, imported foods and drinks,
cars, consumer goods, and industrial prices.
_____A new Census Bureau study reports that father-care has fallen back to
its previous levels, deflating earlier theories. Now, experts are saying
the rise and fall of child-care on the part of fathers while mothers work
has less to do with new parenting roles than simple economic cycles. Citing
unemployment figures, they argue that, in the sluggish economy of the late
1980s, unemployed fathers figured they may as well hold down day-care costs
and help with the children. But as more of them returned to full-time
employment, the children were moved to day-care centers ....(Washington
Post, page A1).
_____The majority of jobs created from 1994 to 1996 were full-time rather
than part-time positions, and two-thirds of the net growth in full-time
employment took place in industry and occupational groups paying better than
median wages, the President's Council of Economic Advisers and the Labor
Department conclude in a new report. The report largely refutes charges
that most of the new jobs created since the start of the Clinton
administration have occurred at the bottom end of the wage scale. The
report cites BLS data showing that, from January 1993 to March 1996, U.S.
firms added 8.5 million new nonfarm jobs to their payrolls, a gain of 7.8
percent. Most of these new jobs are at the top end of the wage scale, with
the top half of the wage distribution continuum accounting for nearly 70
percent of net employment growth. But the administration concedes that data
from 1981 to 1993 show that job losers were more likely to be permanently
dismissed, rather than temporarily laid off, that older workers were subject
to greater risk of job displacement, and that the average real wage loss due
to displacement was "significant and persistent" ....The administration said
it sifted through data compiled by BLS to get a more detailed picture of
where job growth is taking place, the nature of the jobs being created, and
to examine worker displacement for the report, "Job Creation and Employment
Opportunities: The United States Labor Market, 1993-1996" ....(Daily Labor
Report, pages 2,A-14).
_____USA Today (page 7A) says unemployment is low, but layoffs are up;
laid-off who find jobs make 10 percent less on average than they would have
earned previously, says White House ....
The median first-year wage increase in newly negotiated bargaining
agreements in all industries was 3 percent, according to data compiled in
first quarter of 1996 by the Bureau of National Affairs. The comparable
figure for the same time last year was also 3 percent ....(Daily Labor
Report, page D-10).
DUE OUT TOMORROW: College Enrollment and Work Activity of 1995 High School
Graduates
