BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2000
RELEASED TODAY: Regional and state unemployment rates were stable in
February. All four regions posted little or no change over the month, and
46 states recorded shifts of 0.3 percentage point or less. For the second
straight month, all regions, divisions, and states registered unemployment
rates below 6.0 percent. The national jobless rate was virtually unchanged
at 4.1 percent. Nonfarm employment increased in 38 states. ...
A study by Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations
finds unionized hourly employees work an average of 6.63 hours of overtime
on top of their regular 40-hour week. But, while many employees worked only
a few extra hours per week, just over one-fifth of the workers ... work at
least 11 and sometimes more than 20 hours of OT. Many of the nearly 4,300
workers in the study sought the overtime and said they would like even more
hours. Why? The study cites "job insecurity and financial strain." But,
"the hidden costs" of big overtime "may be greater than suspected," the
study notes. Workers who put in more than 50 hours a seek reported a much
greater incidence of "severe" work-family conflicts. Workers pressed into
OT work by supervisors showed "significantly higher" levels of stress,
alcohol use, and absenteeism, the study found (Wall Street Journal's Work
Week column, page A1).
While the United States has experienced a 13 percent increase in working
hours since the beginning of the 1990s, European countries have been
experimenting with various means of reducing working hours as a device to
fight unemployment, according to Jeff Faux, the president of the Economic
Policy Institute. The EPI is a liberal research organization. ...
Home resales rose in February for the first time in 3 months even as
borrowing costs rose. Resales increased by 6.7 percent last month, the
National Association of Realtors says. ... (Washington Post, page
E6)_____Americans pushed up sales of existing homes in February, after two
consecutive months of declines caused in part by higher mortgage rates. ...
(New York Times, page C12)_____Home sales rebounded, offering further
evidence that rising interest rates aren't yet significantly cooling the
domestic economy....(Wall Street Journal, page A2).
While the nation enjoys continuing prosperity, affordable housing for many
of the working poor has become harder to find, a federal report says. The
report, issued by Andrew Cuomo, secretary of Housing and Urban Development,
found that 5.4 million low-income families were living in dilapidated units,
a rise of 12 percent since the economic expansion that began in 1991. The
government regards housing for low-income people affordable if it consumes
less than a third of a family's income. ... (New York Times, page A18).
Online recruiting accounted for one out of every eight new hires last year,
according to kforce.com's recent poll of 300 U.S. companies. The Web-based
staffing concern's poll found many companies planning to expand their
efforts. Leading disadvantages they listed for online searches: too many
applicants, too many unqualified. In addition to promising resumes, "We get
a lot of junk," noted one respondent (The Wall Street Journal's "Work Week"
column, page A1).
Why do employees change jobs so frequently? asks The Wall Street Journal
(page B12). According to a 2000 survey of 346 job seekers by the Society
for Human Resource Management, Alexandria, Va., and careers.wsj.com, the
career site of The Wall Street Journal's online edition, 44 percent do so
because of higher pay elsewhere. Fifteen percent are looking for new
challenges; 12 percent need a change of environment; and 11 percent do so to
escape a bad boss or colleagues.
application/ms-tnef
