> BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, MAY 22, 2001: > > About 47 percent of employers reporting a first-quarter mass layoff expect > to recall workers. That is the lowest percentage for a first quarter > since the measure began 6 years ago, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics > (The Wall Street Journal "Work Week" feature, page A1). > > The Commerce Department's first report using a new data system shows a > consistent upward trend in factory orders in February and March, rather > than the fall and rise the old system indicated. Under the new system, > March factory orders rose 1.4 percent following a 2.3 percent increase in > February, the Commerce Department said. The old system showed factory > orders increasing 1.8 percent in Mach after dropping 0.1 percent in > February. The new data revised March shipments to a 0.1 percent drop from > a 0.4 percent rise. The new production-based system of data sorting will > eventually be used for all government economic reports. The North > American Industry Classification System (NAICS) replaces the old Standard > Industrial Classification system (SIC), the back bone of government > number-crunching. The new system adds more categories for service > industries, breaks out high-tech industries and redraws the lines between > manufacturing, wholesale trade, and retail trade. The Census Bureau > statisticians began using the new categories with the 1997 annual survey. > The Commerce Department has moved its annual reports over to the new basis > and now is preparing to bring in some of its monthly reports, starting > with Friday's report of April durable goods (The Wall Street Journal, page > A16). > > Employers were pickier about offering interviews and jobs this spring than > a year earlier, according to a new study of 2,094 undergraduates and MBA > students by WetFeet Inc., a recruitment solutions provider in San > Francisco. Those polled were seeking full-time or summer jobs. Students > surveyed in March and April had interviewed with an average of 7.5 > companies, compared with 9.8 for students at that point the prior year. As > of March, students had received an average of 1.7 offers, down from 3.3 > offers in 2000. One-third of students hadn't received a job offer as of > March. The proportion was much higher for undergraduates (48 percent) > than for MBAs (15 percent). According to the survey, women received fewer > interviews and offers than did men.(The Wall Street Journal, "Career > Journal" feature, page B12). > > A retired physician and consultant who helps doctors find new positions > notes that in the decades before managed care, relatively few doctors ever > changed jobs once establishing a foothold. "Prior to 1990, about 1 to 2 > percent of all practicing physicians changed jobs during a 20-year work > career," he said. But since the early 1990's, a number of studies have > documented that more than 10 percent of the physician work force changes > jobs annually. The nomadic career path of today's physicians is caused in > part by professional dissatisfaction, unwelcome intrusions on how they can > practice medicine and diminishing job security that has long been a fact > of life for more working Americans but has only recently become one for > doctors. The average physician who has begun practice since 1990 is > likely to have had three or four jobs by 2000, according to an associate > professor of health sciences at Towson State University in Maryland (The > New York Times, page D5). >
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