BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2000
RELEASED TODAY: In March, 226 metropolitan areas reported unemployment
rates below the U.S. average (4.3 percent, not seasonally adjusted), while
99 areas registered higher rates. Nineteen metropolitan areas had rates
below 2.0 percent, with seven of these located in the Midwest, seven in the
South, and four in New England. Of the 10 areas with jobless rates over
10.0 percent, 7 were in California, and 2 were along the Mexican border in
other states.
There was little change in earnings dispersion during the 1990s, even as
wage and employment growth in the highest and lowest paying occupations far
outpaced gains in the middle earnings group, according to an article in the
March 2000 Monthly Labor Review. "Marked growth in wage and salary
employment that took place from 1989 to 1999 in the highest and lowest
earnings groups was not accompanied by a rapid rise in earnings. Earnings
indeed rose, but only modestly, for both groups," write BLS economists Randy
E. Ilg and Steven E. Haugen. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A-11, text E-1).
The House is expected to take up and approve a unanimously passed Senate
bill that would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to prevent inclusion of
profits from certain employee stock purchase programs in regular rates of
pay for purposes of calculating overtime. ... Meanwhile, BLS has taken the
next step in its research project on stock options. The bureau is in the
middle of the second phase of research that could lead to the inclusion of
stock options in its employment cost index data series, which is the
government's broadest measure of compensation. In the current phase of
research, BLS is surveying 2,000 companies to determine the incidence of
stock options offered to both executives and those at other levels of the
organization, according to BLS economist Jeffrey Schildkraut. The bureau
plans to release highlights from the survey in either late summer or early
fall, he said. Schildkraut and BLS economist Beth Levin Crimmel wrote an
article in the winter 1999 issue of BLS' Compensation and Working Conditions
that describes the outcome of the first phase of the study. That phase
involved only 100 companies that were known to offer stock options, with the
goal of determining the types of questions to ask in conducting the larger
survey currently underway. ... (Deborah Billings in Daily Labor Report,
page A-14).
The National Association of Purchasing Management's semiannual forecast
predicts manufacturing revenues will grow by 5.9 percent and
nonmanufacturing revenues will increase by 6.4 percent in the second half of
2000, while employment in both sectors will expand. ... (Daily Labor
Report, page A-8).
The record U.S. economic expansion will continue through 2000, with gains in
information technology industries leading the way, according to a report by
the Commerce Department and McGraw Hill Cos. ... Information technology
accounts for 5 of the 10 manufacturing industries that are expected to grow
the fastest in 2000, the report says. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-2).
The index of leading economic indicators resumed its upward climb in March,
after a temporary lapse the previous month, the Conference Board says. The
Conference Board said the leading indicators point to continued economic
expansion in 2000 though probably not at the "breakneck pace" of the last 6
months. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-1).
Rising interest rates, a volatile stock market, and higher gasoline prices
were expected to be slowing the American economy by now, especially the
highly cyclical auto industry. Yet the stampede into the showrooms
continues across the country, with every big domestic and foreign automaker
announcing that sales last month exceeded even last year's brisk pace. ...
(New York Times, page C2)_____The boom in U.S. auto sales rolled on in
April, as U.S. consumers cashed in factory incentives and ignored stock
market jitters and interest rate pressures. ... (Wall Street Journal, page
A3).
Sales of new single-family houses soared in March to their second-fastest
pace on record, and an index of growth expectations rose, suggesting the
record economic expansion still has legs. Sales of new single-family homes
unexpectedly rose 4.5 percent in March, after falling 0.6 percent in
February. The sales rate was the largest since November 1998. ... The
index of leading economic indicators, a gauge of economic performance for
the next 6 months, rose 0.1 percent in March after a 0.3 percent decline in
February. The gain reflected rising stock prices, low levels of
unemployment claims, and higher orders for consumer goods. ... (New York
Times, page C7)_____New-home sales in March rocketed to their second-highest
monthly level of the current expansion, but growth in the overall housing
market started to slow amid rising interest rates. ... (Wall Street
Journal, page A2).
The tight labor market may have made it tougher for some businesses to hire
qualified people, but it has not stopped many from quickly dismissing
employees who do not pull their weight, according to a recent survey. And
that includes workers at the top of the corporate ladder. Challenger, Gray
& Christmas, an outplacement firm in Chicago that regularly tracks layoffs,
surveyed 3,000 discharged workers last quarter and found that 21 percent
spent less than 24 months with their former employer. The chief executive
of the firm said that was the highest percentage of early job loss since his
company began tracking such data in 1986. In the first quarter of 1999, 13
percent of discharged workers had less than 2 years in their jobs, he said.
The Challenger survey also found that jobs are not much safer at the top of
the corporate ladder. The median income of discharged employees was $88,000
in the first quarter, up 28 percent from the same period a year earlier. ...
(New York Times, April 30, page 16, Money & Business section).
Young men today are beginning to view themselves as fathers first and
workers second, according to a new national survey that found dramatic
changes in generational attitudes toward work and family. The nationwide
survey of 1,008 workers over 21 was conducted in January and February by
Harris Interactive for the Radcliffe Public Policy Center in Cambridge,
Mass., which studies economic issues. More than four-fifths of men aged 20
to 39 interviewed in the poll said that having a work schedule that allows
them to spend time with their family is more important than having
challenging work or earning a high salary. Only about one-quarter of the
men said that having a prestigious job was very important to them. About 70
percent of men in their 20s and 71 percent of men in their 30s said they
would be willing to give up some of their pay in exchange for more time with
their families. Only 26 percent of men over 65 said they would trade pay
for more family time. ... (Washington Post, page E1).
The Census Bureau recently issued Profile of the Foreign-Born Population in
the United States, 1997 that catalogs immigration's already immense effects,
says Robert J. Samuelson in The Washington Post (page A23). In 1997, almost
10 percent of the population was foreign-born, double the level of 1970 (4.7
percent) and the highest since 1930 (11.6 percent). Today's immigrants come
mainly from Latin America (51 percent in 1997) and Asia (27 percent), a huge
change from 1970 when most came from Europe (62 percent) and Canada (9
percent). Although some immigrants do well, many do not. For households
headed by immigrants, the poverty rate among children under 18 (32 percent)
in 1997 was almost twice as high as among households headed by native-born
Americans (18 percent). ... By 2025, the Census Bureau projects immigrants
to be 12 percent of the population; their American-born children will
probably represent an equal number. ...
DUE OUT TOMORROW: Productivity and Costs -- First Quarter 2000
(preliminary)
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