BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1996: RELEASED TODAY: Average annual pay of employees in metropolitan areas increased 3.5 percent from 1994 to 1995, according to preliminary data. The average annual pay level for jobs in the nation's 311 metropolitan areas was $29,105 in 1995, up from $28,125 in 1994. Average annual pay for the entire nation, metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas combined, was $27,845 in 1995 ....Annual pay data are compiled from reports submitted by employers subject to state and federal unemployment insurance (UI) laws covering 115.5 million full- and part-time workers. _____Productivity in the nonfarm business sector inched up 0.2 percent, seasonally adjusted, in the third quarter, while productivity in the factory sector soared 6.3 percent, BLS reports. Although the nonfarm productivity increase falls short of the 0.5 percent advance in the second quarter, the surge in manufacturing output less hours worked is the largest quarterly jump in this sector since a 6.7 percent advance in the first quarter of 1994. Hourly compensation rose at a 3.9 percent rate in the third quarter. When the rise in the CPI-U is taken into account, real hourly compensation rose at a 1.6 percent annual rate in the third quarter, after remaining flat in the second ....(Daily Labor Report, pages 2,D-1). _____Workers' productivity rose 0.2 percent in the third quarter, less than half the gain of the previous three months, as the economy slowed down. Productivity, which measures output per number of hours worked, is a key to the standard of living (Washington Post, page C13). _____The productivity of the American workplace barely increased last summer, the government said, in a report that contained hints of possible inflationary pressures ....Unit labor costs -- typically two-thirds of a product's price -- shot up at a 3.7 percent rate in the summer. Costs had risen 3.3 percent in the second quarter and just 1.5 percent in the first ....(New York Times, AP article, page D4). _____With a poky economy, productivity gains at U.S. businesses slowed in the third quarter to less than half of the second-quarter rate ....Lackluster productivity reports hardly alarm analysts, who are skeptical about their accuracy. Indeed, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has argued publicly that the numbers understate actual productivity growth. The good news is that productivity in the manufacturing sector -- where output can actually be counted -- surged 6.3 percent in the third quarter, the largest gain in more than 2 years ....(Wall Street Journal, page A2). Thomas Nardone, an economist at BLS, is quoted in a Wall Street Journal article on increases in pay and benefits for temporary workers (page B16B). The article says that America's growing legions of temporary workers are seeing their paychecks fatten more quickly than those of the permanently employed. The average hourly pay for workers at the nation's biggest temp agency, Manpower, Inc., rose by nearly 5.8 percent in the third quarter, compared with a 3.3 percent gain for U.S. workers overall. A smaller rival, Randstad Staffing Services of Atlanta, said the trend continued into the fourth quarter at its company, with hourly pay in the Southeast rising by 6.4 percent in October from a year earlier, compared with a national average gain of just 2.7 percent. Temp workers are getting better benefits, too ....Economists and temp-agency officials said the rising pay and benefits have more to do with the changing nature of the temp business than with labor force pressures ....The temporary work force is no longer the exclusive domain of moderately paid secretary or clerical workers. It has been invaded by bankers, accountants, and others who demand higher pay and better benefits ....The data from Manpower and Randstad suggest a higher rate of wage growth than that shown in Labor Department statistics for temp workers. That category, officially known as "help-supply services," rose by 4.1 percent in the third quarter. Nardone said the discrepancy could stem from a difference between the mix of temporary employees overall and of those employed by the agencies. New claims filed with state agencies for unemployment insurance benefits declined by 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted total of 331,000 during the week ended Nov. 2, according to estimates by the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-10). Sales for major chain stores picked up in October, according to sales results, and some retailers voice optimism about the holiday shopping season ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-9; Washington Post, page C11; New York Times, page D1; Wall Street Journal, page B6;). _____Robert B. Reich, Secretary of Labor, was point man on "putting people first." Reich's early massage was brushed aside, but later was resurrected ....Yesterday, Reich announced he wasn't re-enlisting for a second term. He said he was resigning from the cabinet to spend more time with his family, which had moved back to Boston more than a year ago so that his wife could resume her career teaching law at Northeastern University ....Reich said his legacy was convincing the public that education and training were the keys to a worker's future ....(Washington Post, page A19). _____Reich writes an op-ed page article entitled "My Family Leave Act" in the New York Times in which he describes "why I'm quitting a job I love."
