BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1996
RELEASED TODAY:
PPI -- The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods advanced 0.4
percent in October, seasonally adjusted. This followed a 0.2 percent
increase in September and a 0.3 percent rise in August. Prices for both
finished energy goods and finished consumer foods rose more than in the
prior month. By contrast, the index for finished goods other than food and
energy fell 0.3 percent after rising 0.3 percent in September ....
QUALITY CHANGES FOR 1997 MODEL VEHICLES -- The value of quality
changes for a sample of 15 1997 model domestic passenger cars included in
the PPI for October represented 45.9 percent of the average yearly increase
in producers' prices and 55.7 percent of the average yearly increase in
manufacturers' suggested list prices ....
A downsizing record -- The Sunbeam Corporation said it would cut its work
force by half, or 6,000 jobs, in what is believed to be, in terms of
percentage, the biggest corporate staff cut ever ....(New York Times, page
D1)_____Sunbeam would eliminate 50 percent of the company's 12,000
employees and sell or consolidate 39 of its 53 facilities. The company
will shed several lines of businesses and scrap 87 percent of Sunbeam's
products ....(Wall Street Journal, page B1).
Major airlines are tightening their grip at large airports, blocking use by
new carriers and causing ticket prices to rise, a General Accounting Office
report says ....(Wall Street Journal, page A2).
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in its annual
report card on the U.S. economy, gave it an "A" and predicted another
couple of years of "full employment with fairly low inflation" ....(Wall
Street Journal, page A2).
DUE OUT TOMORROW:
Consumer Price Index -- October 1996
Real Earnings: October 1996
