BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, MAY 18, 1999
RELEASED TODAY: In February 1999, there were 878 mass layoff actions by
employers as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits
during the month. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single
establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 80,134. Both the
number of layoff events and the number of initial claimants for unemployment
insurance were slightly lower in February 1999 than in February 1998. ...
A few hours after starting a fee-based search engine for federal government
Internet sites and documents, the Commerce Department put the project off to
review whether it conflicts with the administration's policy on unrestricted
access to government information. Commerce officials said the
administration wanted to review the joint venture by the National Technical
Information Service and Northern Light Technology Inc. from all policy
angles, not just that of NTIS, which is a for-profit agency. The
announcement that the project was being delayed came several hours after
NTIS and Northern Light officials held a news briefing to demonstrate the
search engine at the National Press Club and after newspaper articles about
the project had appeared. ... (New York Times, page C6).
Federal Reserve policymakers meet today to decide whether economic growth is
so strong that an increase in short-term interest rates is needed to cool it
down before it causes the nation's low inflation rate to pick up. Almost
universally, financial analysts are betting that the officials, led by
Chairman Alan Greenspan, will not raise rates even though booming consumer
spending has been spurring growth well in excess of what Fed forecasters had
expected. The analysts are badly split, however, over whether inflation
worries will cause the policymaking group, the Federal Open Market
Committee, to decide to send a signal to financial markets and the public
that it is leaning in the direction of raising rates at a later date. Those
expecting such a signal became more convinced on Friday when BLS reported
consumer prices jumped 0.7 last month, the largest monthly increase in 5
years. But that jump was an anomaly, other analysts stressed. ...
(Washington Post, page E1)_____Fueling fears of an eventual rate rise was
Friday's report that consumer prices rose 2.3 percent in the 12 months ended
in April, the first time since October 1987 that prices rose more than 2
percent year to year. ... (New York Times, page C12)_____Until now, a
pleasurable combination of stronger-than-expected economic growth and
weaker-than-expected inflation has made it easy for the hold-steady crowd at
the Federal Reserve. Suddenly, the Fed's worrywart contingent has something
to talk about. Last week's government report of an uptick in consumer price
inflation and new signs of vitality in factory output are likely to make
today's meeting of the Fed's policysetting Open Market Committee a lot more
interesting than the past couple of sessions. The issues the Fed confronts
are clear: The resolution is not. Will inflation accelerate unless the Fed
raises interest rates soon to slow the economy, or is the economy about to
slow on its own? Is the global economy coming back, or about to suffer a
relapse? Are productivity growth and global competition increasing so much
that the U.S. can safely expand rapidly for a few more quarters? ... (Wall
Street Journal, page A2).
Employees in the United States and Canada should expect salary increases to
continue hovering around 4 percent, according to a preliminary sample from
the American Compensation Association's 1999-2000 Total Salary Increase
Budget Survey. Estimates for 1999 U.S. salaries were grouped by employee
category. Survey respondents estimated that pay increases would be 4
percent for nonexempt hourly workers, 4.1 percent for nonexempt salaried
employees, 4.2 percent for exempt-salaried employees, and 4.5 percent for
officer/executives. The results are based on a random e-mail survey of
2,000 ACA members in the United States and 800 in Canada. ... (Daily Labor
Report, page A-5).
More employers motivate the rank and file with stock options, according to
the "Work Week" feature of The Wall Street Journal (page A1). ... In a
survey of 350 companies' 1998 proxy statements, William M. Mercer, a New
York benefits consultant, found 35 percent with stock options for most
employees, more than double the 1993 total. ...
Three-quarters of full-time employees are offered retirement programs by
their employers, according to results from a survey conducted for the Profit
Sharing/401(k) Council of America by Bruskin/Goldring Research. The survey
found that 70.4 percent of employees age 18 and older, and 75.7 percent of
those employed full time, are provided a retirement program as part of their
benefits package. ... Bruskin/Goldring surveyed 1,000 households, which
were telephoned randomly, in the United States for the study (Daily Labor
Report, page A-9).
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