BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1996 RELEASED TODAY: In 1995, the number of work stoppages was at the lowest level recorded in the 49-year old series. Most of the other measures of strike activity also were at relatively low levels in 1995 .... Major collective bargaining agreements reached in 1995 contained, on average, smaller wage gains than the contracts they replaced, BLS reports. Contracts negotiated in 1995 called for an average annual increase of 2.5 percent, compared with 3 percent for the pacts they replaced ....Due to funding cuts, BLS will no longer publish or collect information on collective bargaining settlements. BNA also collects, compiles, and analyzes collective bargaining data, which it publishes in biweekly and quarterly reports and will continue to do so ....(Daily Labor Report, Feb. 20, pages 1,D-6). A New York Times article (Feb. 21, page D1), "Squeezing the Textile Workers; Trade and Technology Force a New Wave of Job Cuts," cites BLS job figures in the text and charts -- "After four years of stability, employment in the apparel industry took a sudden plunge last year, falling by more than 10 percent, to 846,000, from 945,000 at the end of 1994. An additional 42,000 jobs vanished in the fabrics industry, which produces the raw material to make clothing, for a total shrinkage of 141,000 jobs -- 40 percent of all manufacturing jobs lost in the United States last year ....So while dismantling trade barriers benefits most consumers by lowering prices, it also deepens blue-collar anxieties in industries that are vulnerable to foreign competition ...." Articles in today's USA Today deal with surviving the decline of job security (page 2B), workers must hustle to keep up with changes in the corporate world (page 1B), and CEOs face image problems in wake of layoffs (page 1B) ....The article on job security uses BLS figures in charts and text, including occupational projections, earnings by education and by training received, and nonfinancial corporate productivity____Yesterday's article on "Workers on the edge" (page 1B) dealt with job fears, saying that, even though two-thirds of workers say they haven't been affected by the wave of corporate downsizings, and two-thirds say it's unlikely they'll soon lose their jobs, two-thirds say job fears are tearing at the fabric of society" ....Angst makes for "joyless recovery" and poses new challenges throughout electorate ....
