BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1996
RELEASED TODAY: Unemployment rates for most states showed little
movement in August, as 43 states and the District of Columbia recorded
shifts of 0.3 percentage point or less. The national unemployment rate
fell 0.3 percentage point to 5.1 percent in August. Nonfarm payroll
employment increased in 43 states and the District of Columbia in August
....
The Daily Labor Report (page D-1) says that economic data were mixed in
August. Employment, hours worked, wages, and production all advanced
during the month, while reports charting consumer and trade-related
activity seemed to indicate a slowdown in overall growth. And that has
economists divided. Will the U.S. economy slow appreciably from the
heady pace logged during the first half of the year, when special
factors -- pent up demand, accelerated tax returns, and tax credits --
gave a firm but temporary boost to demand? Or will economic momentum
continue to buoy growth at above-trend levels? ....
Total personal income advanced a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent in
August, as wages and salaries jumped 0.8 percent, the Commerce
Department reported ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-3)_____Government
reports offered fresh evidence of strength in the economy with solid
advances in both consumer spending and personal income and a jump in new
home sales to the highest level in more than 10 years ....(Washington
Post, page C1; New York Times, page D5; Wall Street Journal, page A2)
_____Politics aside, the economy is shrugging off a rise in the minimum
wage (New York Times, page D1) ....The number of wage earners who will
get an immediate rate will be minuscule -- just 2.3 million or 3.3
percent of all workers. Their lives may improve, but the impact on the
overall economy will be negligible. Many economists predict small job
losses -- 100,000 to 200,000 at most over two years in a work force of
126 million. Because so few earn the minimum wage, the inflationary
jolt will amount to one-tenth or two-tenths of 1 percent this year,
economists agree ....The accompanying charts, attributed to BLS, show
that the economic impact of increases in the minimum wage has diminished
with the shrinking purchasing power of the base wage and the steady
decline in the ranks of those who earn it. Still, large numbers of some
subgroups in the labor force are paid the minimum, or less.
While union membership has fallen to 14 percent of workers from 34
percent in the 1950s, the number of Hispanics pouring into low-tier
service jobs are a welcome target for organizers. "Our membership has
more than tripled since 1978," to about 20,000, says an organizer for
Local 254 of the Service Employees International Union in Boston, which
is largely made up of immigrants working as janitors. One big draw: a
medical and retirement benefit program for members ....("Work Week,"
Wall Street Journal, page A1)_____Teamsters agree to fund project in
Latino section of Los Angeles, representing a boost for organized
labor's efforts to unionize the city's largely nonunion immigrant
workforce ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-5)_____A small army of union
janitors cleans D.C.'s commercial office buildings every night, a mostly
female and Hispanic work force. The janitors' union seeks pay hikes and
a wider reach ....(Washington Post, page C1).
"Continuous employment" is the new buzzword for hourly employees, says
the "Work Week" column (Wall Street Journal, page A1). With skilled
labor in short supply, more companies that manage hourly workers are
guaranteeing minimum work loads in lean times and paying bonuses when
longer hours and extra work days are required. " When companies
encourage employees to stay, even in lean times, they avoid losing the
breadth of past experience", says James E. Challenger, president of
Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which has been studying the practice ....
Business executives say about 37 percent of their work forces lack
fundamental math and writing skills, according to a poll by Olsten
Staffing Services, Melville, N.Y. But only about 15 percent of the
companies provide math training, and 10 percent aid in reading ("Work
Week," Wall Street Journal, page A1).
A Wall Street Journal article (page A1) says that being a "manager" can
be a blue-collar life. Grueling hours and no respect make low-tier
bosses feel tired and troubled ....During the past decade, the
percentage of workers classified as "managers" has increased to 14.5
percent from 11 percent; the growth has been even greater in the service
sector. But most of these jobs are far from the white-collar status
positions normally associated with the term "manager." They are high
pressure, dead-end jobs with little status and low pay: the harried
store manager at a fast-food restaurant; the assistant manager at a
discount drug store; the manager at a travel agency; the bank branch
head. These people carry the title manager, but they lead a blue-collar
life -- working long hours, often doing the same tasks as those they
employ, and carrying out orders from above ....
Chrysler Corp. and the United Auto Workers reach a tentative accord on
the terms for a three-year contract that would largely mirror the
union's settlement at Ford Motor Co. ....Ford workers, meanwhile,
approve the tentative accord with the automaker by a 90 percent
majority, the union says. The Chrysler pact matched Ford's commitment
to keep its UAW-represented workforce at 95 percent of current levels,
sources say, with provisions allowing for fewer workers during a
weakening economy or a market share slump ....(Daily Labor Report, pages
1,A-4)_____Job guarantees given to the UAW by Ford and Chrysler include
previously undisclosed escape clauses that may help GM accept similar
guarantees in a new contract agreement ....(Wall Street Journal, page
A3).
Some 35 major freight railroad carriers and nearly a dozen labor unions
have new contracts, as the remaining two major rail labor unions agree
to terms without the use of strikes or imposed settlement for the first
time in nearly a decade ....(Daily Labor Report, pages 2,A-6).
DUE OUT TOMORROW: First Report from COMP2000 Pilot Survey Released by
BLS
