BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1997 RELEASED TODAY: The Employment Cost Index for March 1997 was 132.0, an increase of 2.9 percent from March 1996. The ECI measures changes in compensation costs, which include wages, salaries, and employer costs for employee benefits. On a seasonally adjusted basis, compensation costs for civilian workers increased 0.6 percent during the December 1996-March 1997 period. Three-month increases in compensation costs have ranged from 0.6 to 0.9 percent for the last four years .... Boosted by gains in farm income, five Plains states registered the largest increases in per capita personal income in 1996, reports the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. These five states -- North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota -- saw large gains in farm income due mainly to high corn production. Nationally, BEA says that per capita personal income grew by 4.5 percent -- from $23,196 in 1995 to $24,231 in 1996. This 4.5 percent gain was slightly more than twice the 2.2 percent rise in prices paid by consumers, as measured by the price index for personal consumption expenditures ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-1). __Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) ruled out a proposal to reduce the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment as part of a balanced budget deal with the White House, charging that President Clinton had failed to provide sufficient public support for the controversial approach ....Despite Lott's comments and Democratic sniping, negotiators on both sides said a deal remains in reach. Even without the legislative changes to the COLA originally advocated by Lott, the government would pick up additional revenue from a COLA reduction if, as expected, BLS economists proceed with their effort to correct their inflation formula on technical grounds. Experts predict a technical correction by the BLS could result in a downward revision in COLAs of as much as four-tenths of a percentage point -- the same reduction Republicans were advocating through legislation ....(Washington Post, page A4). __Lott all but ruled out reducing cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security recipients to help balance the budget. His remarks complicated prospects for a bipartisan deal to eliminate the federal deficit even as the two sides prepared for a big push to reach agreement this week. Mr. Lott said President Clinton had waited too long to signal a willingness to take the political heat that changing the cost-of-living formula would generate ....(New York Times, page A16). __Lott, frustrated that President Clinton won't publicly embrace a reduction of the government's inflation index, said the issue is dead for the current budget balancing talks ....It's unclear, however, whether Sen. Lott's declaration will turn out to be real, or simply the latest effort to pressure Mr. Clinton on the issue ...."I'll be candid, I think we've lost it," said Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) who has been an outspoken advocate of adopting the full 1.1 percentage point correction in the CPI ....(Wall Street Journal, page A24). DUE OUT TOMORROW: State and Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment: March 1997
