BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1997 RELEASED TODAY: The incidence of nonfatal work-related injuries and illnesses fell in 1995 to the lowest rate in nearly a decade. A total of 6.6 million injuries and illnesses were reported during 1995, resulting in a rate of 8.1 cases for every 100 equivalent full-time workers. The rate was the lowest since 1986 and declined for three years in a row for the first time since the early 1980s .... BLS downwardly revises nonfarm business productivity in the fourth quarter of 1996 to a 1.1 percent gain, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. For all of 1996, nonfarm productivity advanced by 0.7 percent, the largest gain since 1992, when productivity surged 3.2 percent. The advance was close to the 1 percent increases typical within the last 20 years, but well below average annual advances achieved between the end of World War II and the early 1970s ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-1). __Americans' productivity, the key measurement of how fast living standards can rise, increased 0.7 percent last year, a modest gain but nevertheless the biggest in four years. The rise is more than double the 0.3 percent advance in 1995. The sluggish growth of productivity since the 1970s is viewed as the root of many economic problems, including slow income growth and a feeling of insecurity among workers ....(AP story, Washington Post, page C11; New York Times, page D4). __Americans' productivity grew slower and labor costs grew faster in the fourth quarter than originally thought, only slightly disturbing an otherwise calm inflationary picture ....(Wall Street Journal, page A2). __White House officials March 11 said that the White House has not made any decisions about whether an independent commission should be created to consider adjustments to the CPI. OMB Director Frank Raines said that the White House has not found consensus on Capitol Hill about the value of a special commission ....Gene Sperling, chairman of the National Economic Council, said the White House "made a goodfaith effort" to reach out to lawmakers on the CPI commission idea ....Sperling described the response as "tough sledding" and said the president's advisers were privately discussing alternatives ....Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin also said there has been no decision on the "general subject" of adjusting the CPI. Rubin, in testimony before the House Budget Committee, said twice that the administration believes Social Security needs to be "fully protected" for inflation increases and that any changes made to the CPI need to be "technically grounded." He also granted that "most economists" believe the CPI overstates inflation ....(Daily Labor Report, page A10). __The Wall Street Journal (page A2) describes how the CPI affects Social Security and taxes and says that lowering the inflation gauge would have a modest impact at first ....The article is illustrated with charts that show how lowering the CPI by 1.1 percentage points would affect Social Security, 1996 to the year 2006, and the taxes of a couple with two children and an income of $75,000 in the year 2002. The Commerce Department plans to have Census takers question 90 percent of households by mail, telephone, or personal visit for the 2000 Census, but will change the sampling method used in estimates that account for non-responsive households. Instead of Census workers deciding which homes to visit to bring their total to 90 percent, they will be given specific addresses selected for sampling. Census officials say that will make the count more accurate, but critics doubt it ....(USA Today, page 9A). Forget about that week at the beach this summer, says USA Today (page 1B). You'll be working. As if downsizing wasn't enough, a new indignity is being visited on the American workforce: Vacation time is shrinking ....The story is illustrated with a chart that shows the percentage of workers on paid vacation during a survey week, credited to BLS ....Employers may offer a menu of New Age benefits ranging from comp time to profit-sharing to 401(k) plans. But nationally, the average amount of vacation time a worker receives is down, and has been slipping since 1980 ....A new study by Primark Decision Economics shows that the average U.S. worker gets 11.37 days a year in paid vacation, a steady decline from 12.17 days in 1987. Private sector employees must work an average of 23.9 days to earn one day of paid vacation vs. working 22.4 days for the same benefit in 1987. And the trend is expected to worsen .... The economic expansion of the 1990s, six years old this month, is displaying a resilience uncharacteristic of earlier periods of such sustained growth. The pace of the economy -- surging in some months, faltering a bit in others -- has reached an annual growth rate of 4 percent in recent months, well above average. Unemployment has held below 5.5 percent for the better part of a year, an experience that in the 1970s and 1980s helped cause wages and prices to escalate ....(Louis Uchitelle, New York Times, page D1). DUE OUT TOMORROW: State and Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment: January 1997
