BLS DAILY REPORT, MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1997 Producer prices for finished goods posted their largest drop in 2-1/2 years in February, BLS reported, but that was apparently not enough to allay many investor's worries that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates to keep inflation in check ....The Dow Jones industrial average rose 56.57 points after the unexpectedly good inflation news was released, but that was only about a third of the previous day's sharp loss. The bond market showed only a modest gain ....Meanwhile, the Fed reported that industrial production rose 0.5 percent last month, in what was partly a weather-related rebound from a 0.1 percent decline in January. The increase would have been greater except for a fall in electricity and natural gas production due to unusually warm weather. The Fed report also contained further good news related to inflation. Industrial production was 3.8 percent higher than it was in February of last year, but investment in new plants and equipment has added enough production capacity in the meantime that there are virtually no strains anywhere in the industrial portion of the economy ....Separately, the Commerce Department said business inventories rose 0.1 percent in January, following a 0.1 percent decline in December. The small addition to inventories suggested to some forecasters that growth in the first three months of this year may turn out to be at about a 3 percent rate -- still stronger than they had been expecting at the beginning of the year but about a percentage point below the fourth-quarter's gain ....Many analysts anticipate a 0.2 percent rise in both the overall consumer price index and the core CPI in February ....(Washington Post, March 15, page C1)_____While the economy continues to boom with strong job growth and an upsurge in retail sales, wholesale prices dropped in February for the second consecutive month, and analysts believe the likelihood of an upsurge is very unlikely in the near future. Many economists were taken by surprise at the extent of the drop ....(Daily Labor Report, March 17, pages D-1, A-8, D-9) A 7 percent decline in on-the job repetitive-stress injuries probably reflects greater awareness of the problem by workers and employers, according to experts in ergonomics -- the science of adapting workplaces to workers ....BLS said that the number of stress trauma cases such as carpal tunnel syndrome and back strains fell from 332,000 in 1994 to 308,000 in 1995, the first reported decline since 1982 ....According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, upper-limb injuries in 1994 cost employers $2.1 billion, while back injuries brought an $11 billion price tag ....(Washington Post, March 16, page H5). In an op-ed column, "The Lie About Our Schools," William Raspberry quotes Gerald W. Bracey, a research psychologist, as saying, "Clinton and Vice President Gore say that by the year 2000, 60 percent of all jobs will require advanced technological skills. I don't know where these numbers come from -- and neither do the statisticians I spoke with at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Their own projections in 1990 and again in 1995 showed that the greatest growth in jobs up to 2005 will be for such high-skill, high-tech occupations as cashiers, sales clerks, janitors and waiters ...." (Washington Post, March 17). "Measuring Inflation: Can't Do It, Can't Stop Trying" is the title of an article by Louis Uchitelle (New York Times, March 16, page E4). Uchitelle says that intruding in the debate over whether the Boskin Commission is right is a different concern, one that has long lurked in the background: If a single index cannot accurately capture the American experience, then maybe the whole complex system of using only one index to adjust Social Security benefits and other federal outlays should be dismantled. That may be the intellectually honest thing to do, but it is not likely to happen. The CPI has become as much a political tool as it is an economic yardstick ....Without the crutch of the CPI, the administration and Congress would have to decide, on their own, how to divvy up the government pie ....The problem with the current system is that a single index probably fails to represent the inflation experiences of most Americans ....But producing several CPIs simultaneously would be expensive and impractical .... The use of temporary employees is growing so rapidly that companies are making temporary staffing firms permanent parts of their headquarters. Called on-site staffing, it is the hottest trend among temp firms and their clients ....(USA Today, March 17, page 1B). Kevin M. Murphy, a 39-year-old professor of business economics at the University of Chicago, has been chosen as the winner of the John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association. Though the Clark Medal, awarded every other year to an outstanding American economist under age 40, is little known to the public, it carries as much prestige among American economists as the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science. Murphy is being honored for his "extraordinarily original" study of "wages, wage inequality and the relationship between wages and labor force participation" ....(New York Times, March 14, page C2). A new federal analysis has found that an immigration law adopted last fall will make it much more difficult for poor and working-class immigrants to bring family members to the United States legally, especially Mexicans and Salvadorans, whose incomes are generally lower than those of other immigrant groups ....The law requires immigrants seeking to bring relatives here to meet income requirements and to make legally enforceable promises to support the newcomers ....The law will require immigrants sponsoring family members for admission to the U.S. to make at least 125 percent of the poverty level ....Preliminary research, sponsored by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service and based on a random survey of 2,160 statements signed by sponsors of family immigrants in 1994, found that about 3 in 10 of those sponsors had incomes below the new standard. Another study conducted last year by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research group, reached similar conclusions. Its examination of 1993 Census Bureau income data found that 40 percent of immigrant families in the U.S. and 26 percent of Americans born in the U.S. would not make enough to sponsor an immigrant under the new standard ....(New York Times, March 16, page A1). DUE OUT TOMORROW: State and Regional Unemployment, 1996 Annual Averages
