BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 1998
OSHA issues voluntary "common-sense" recommendations to reduce the
number of workers injured in late-night retail establishments,
especially convenience stores, liquor stores, and gasoline stations,
during robberies and other violent acts.... (Daily Labor Report, page
A-7; Washington Post, page C11)_____About half the more than 900 people
killed on the job in 1996 were store clerks, says an OSHA report. The
Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that about 18, 000 clerks are victims
of nonlethal assaults annually (USA Today, page 1B).
The President of the American Federation of Government Employees, Bobby
Harnage, calls on President Clinton and the three-member board of the
President's Pay Agent to reinstate occupationally specific wage surveys
as a means of measuring pay gaps between federal and private sector
workers. Harnage noted that the Federal Salary Council had met on April
16 and voted unanimously to require BLS to reinstate its comprehensive
occupationally specific wage surveys. Job-based survey methodology
previously had been used to compare federal and nonfederal pay, he said.
But in 1996, because of government downsizing, BLS unilaterally
terminated the surveys and now is attempting to use a more generic
method in determining wages - the National Compensation Survey.... To
date, the council has not heard from the Pay Agent board, which includes
the secretary of labor, the director of the Office of Management and
Budget, and the director of the Office of Personnel Management....
(Daily Labor Report, page A-12).
As Congress mulls whether to expand the H-1B guest worker program,
economists and analysts are intensifying the debate over whether there
is a shortage of high-tech workers severe enough to warrant further
opening of U.S. borders.... Projections from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics show employment will grow rapidly in information technology
services through the year 2006.... (Daily Labor Report, page C-1).
Consumer confidence index rose nearly three points in April, as
consumers continued to express optimism about their economic future, the
Conference Board reports.... (Daily Labor Report, page A-3).
New orders for manufactured durable goods rose 0.4 percent in March
after decreasing 0.8 percent in February, the Commerce Department
reports.... (Daily Labor Report, page D-1).
Consumer confidence surged in April, and the government reported that
orders for durable goods rose modestly in March.... Manufacturing
industries were restrained by unexpected weakness in demand for
commercial aircraft.... (Washington Post, page C11; New York Times,
page D2)_____Consumer confidence rebounded in April, indicating American
shoppers are still feeling gung-ho about the condition of the U.S.
economy. But the slight rise in durable goods orders is a sign that the
Asian crisis may be helping to keep those enthusiastic consumers and
U.S. businesses from pushing the economy too far, too fast.... (Wall
Street Journal, page A2).
DUE OUT TOMORROW: Employment Cost Index -- March 1998
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