>BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1996 > >RELEASED TODAY: In April through June of 1996, there were 1,247 mass layoff >actions by employers, resulting in the separation of 226,449 workers from >their jobs. A year earlier, employers reported 1,670 layoff events and >385,644 laid-off workers in the second quarter of 1995. "Seasonal work" was >the major reason cited for the second quarter 1996 layoffs, accounting for 37 >percent of the events and 41 percent of the separations .... > >A surge in foreign oil costs drove up import prices 0.8 percent in September, BLS reports. Export prices fell 0.8 percent in the month, mostly because of declining agricultural costs ....(Daily Labor Report, page >D-1)_____The U.S. import price index, excluding fuels, rose 0.3 percent in >September, the largest rise since July 1995 and only the second time in the past year that the index has increased. Still, nonpetroleum prices were >down 1.6 percent for the 12 months ended in September ....(The Wall Street >Journal, page A2). > >The rate of work-related deaths in the United States has declined nearly 90 >percent since the early 1900s, even though today's workforce is triple the >size and produces nearly 13 times the goods and services, according to a National Safety Council report ....The council based the 1995 figure on the BLS data system. However, the safety council figures are slightly lower than BLS's 1995 figure because the council does not include >intentional deaths such as homicides and suicides ....(Daily Labor Report, >page A-9). > >In the past 10 years, the United States has made gains in recapturing its >global market share for its products, and it leads the other Group of Seven >industrial powers in industrial output, job creation, and slashing the >federal deficit, according to the Council on Competitiveness. But the >country is vulnerable on several fronts, including weak savings and >investment, wage inequality, a low payoff on its educational investment, and >lackluster productivity growth ....The Council defines competitiveness as the >country's ability to meet the test of international markets while maintaining or boosting the real incomes of its citizens ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-9)_____U.S. competitiveness rose sharply over the past decade, but the nation remains vulnerable to foreign challenges due to long-term economic weaknesses, including rising income inequality, paltry savings, and schools that aren't teaching what workers need to know. The council is made up of 150 business, labor, and academic leaders (Washington >Post, page C12). > >Nearly half the nation's adults who lack health insurance have trouble >obtaining or paying for medical care and suffer serious health or financial >problems as a result, according to a study in the "Journal of the American >Medical Association." The finding disproves the widespread popular notion >that the uninsured get adequate health care and the public simply picks up the bill, said the president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. That >group, along with researchers at Harvard University and the National Opinion >Research Center, conducted the study, using 1995 telephone surveys of 3,993 randomly selected persons nationwide ....(Washington Post, page >A2)_____The new study says that 31 percent of Americans were without health >insurance or had difficulty getting or paying for medical care at some time >in the last year ....The data show the financial perils of lacking health insurance ....(New York Times, page A18) > >Immigration will keep on fueling the explosive population growth in >California and the rest of the West through the next century, according to a >U.S. Census Bureau report (USA Today, page 7A). And Texas' population will soar more than any other state between 1995 and the year 2000, not just >because of immigration but because people will be flocking in from other >states. The population boom in the West and South indicates that states now >grappling with overcrowding will face a monstrous problem in the future. It >also shows the powerful effect immigrants are having on the nation's >demographic profile .... The AFL-CIO this month began publishing a monthly magazine, replacing the biweekly tabloid newspaper, AFL-CIO News, which had been published since 1955. The new magazine -- America@ Work -- is part of an overhaul of the federation's communications programs ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-15). DUE OUT TOMORROW: Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers: Third Quarter 1996
