BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1996 The number of employed young workers grew by 2.6 million in the summer of 1996, about the same as the year before, according to BLS ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-7). __New claims filed with state agencies for unemployment insurance benefits declined just 2,000 during the week ended September 14 to a seasonally adjusted total of 329,000, the Labor Department's Employment and Training Administration reports ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-5). __Stronger-that-expected housing starts and shrinking claims for jobless benefits bolstered arguments that the Federal Reserve will boost interest rates next week to keep the economy from overheating ....(AP article, Washington Post, page F3; New York Times, page D2). The Wall Street Journal (page B1) says that job hunting takes off in cyberspace and that the Internet is linking employers and job seekers in ways that are transforming the nation's job market ....The Internet offers employers and applicants alike the advantage of speed ....The Journal lists on-line services, the number of jobs, the number of resumes, and the Internet address ....The U.S. Labor Department is funding "Internet Access Zones" in community colleges, universities, and 1,800 public employment service offices nationwide where job seekers can go on line to search job postings. Numerous public libraries and academic career centers already have such systems installed .... Is manufacturing job loss overstated? asks the Wall Street Journal (page B5A). Official government figures show that manufacturing is the incredibly shrinking sector of the U.S. economy. But things may not be as bad as they appear, according to a growing number of economists. The reason: The companies are increasingly turning over activities not considered "core" to outside service or temporary placement firms, whose workers may still be working on the office or factory premises of the manufacturing firms. The Labor Department's monthly and quarterly jobs data still count jobs by which sector issues the paycheck. "It undercounts the number of workers on the factory floor and overcounts those in the service sector," says Morgan Stanley & Co. chief economist Stephen Roach. He says the mislabeling also plays a hand in making it look as if the manufacturing sector is more productive than it actually is. Considering the fast growth in recent years of temporary placement and out source service firms, Roach figures at least half of the 265,000 jobs lost in the past 17 months may actually be mislabeled service workers. The same would be true for the 1.2 million decline in manufacturing job personnel to the current 18.3 million level since 1989, he estimates .... Getting a grip on your finances is hard enough when you know how much money you're going to make each year. But for the growing number of Americans who find it difficult to predict their earnings from one year to the next, it can be downright nerve wracking, says the Wall Street Journal feature, "Your Money Matters" (page C1) ....More and more companies are keeping a lid on traditional annual raises while tying a bigger chunk of pay to performance. That type of compensation, known as "variable" or "at-risk" pay, includes profit-sharing programs, bonuses, and other financial incentives for individuals or groups of employees who boost productivity or achieve other performance targets, says one consultant ....
