BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1999
RELEASED TODAY: In June 1999, there were 1,141 mass layoff actions by
employers as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits
during the month, according to BLS. Each action involved at least 50
persons from a single establishment, and the number of workers involved
totaled 131,062. Both the number of layoff events and the number of initial
claimants for unemployment insurance were lower in June 1999 than in June
1998, when there were strike-related plant shutdowns in the transportation
equipment and electronic equipment industries. ...
Putting more disabled people to work is a priority, the government says.
Disabled workers are more likely to have two jobs and work part time,
according to "Futurework," a Labor Department study of work-force trends to
be released Thursday. The study speculates that equal access laws and
technology will enable disabled workers to get needed training to close the
gap with other employees. But federal rules limit what people can earn and
still receive certain disability benefits. Also, many disabled people are
tracked into jobs that limit advancement, the study says. ... ("Work Week,"
Wall Street Journal, page A1).
As children across the United States swarm back to school, principals from
Washington to Palm Beach County, Fla., and from Houston to Los Angeles say
they are struggling through the worst teacher shortage in recent memory.
They describe being whipsawed by swelling enrollments and a push to reduce
class size at a time when more teachers are retiring. The problem is not
one of overall supply: Nationwide, there are at least 180,000 recent
graduates with teaching degrees and about 80,000 veterans looking for new
jobs, enough to fill the estimated 200,000 teaching vacancies posted in the
nation's public schools since last school year, experts say. The driving
issues are geography and expertise. Teachers in states where there are
sometimes hundreds of applicants for one job, including Minnesota and
Wisconsin, have been largely unwilling to move to those states most in need.
including Texas and California. And even those teachers game for a change
of scenery are often untrained in the subjects where shortages are greatest:
mathematics, science, bilingual studies, and special education, perhaps the
most challenging assignment for teachers. ... (New York Times, page A1).
Most of the nation's 500,000 long-haul drivers are in tough straits, writes
Louis Uchitelle in "Economic View" in The New York Times (Aug. 29, "Money
and Business" section, page 4). Inflation has eaten at their pay, and
raises that are just beginning to come through have not restored the buying
power that existed for these drivers in the late 1970s. The re-engineering
of the American economy started then, and is still having its effect today,
helping to explain two contradictory trends: Pay has deteriorated for many
Americans and wage inflation has been mild, even as unemployment has fallen
and labor shortages have developed in some areas. In the absence of raises,
the drivers have tried to keep up with inflation by driving more miles,
often violating the federal 60-hour a week work limit. ... In a
deregulated, competitive industry like long-haul trucking, where union
membership (in the Teamsters) has fallen to 10 percent of the workers, from
30 percent in the 1970s, the scramble for drivers does not easily produce
higher pay or wage inflation -- particularly when the drivers do not see a
viable alternative. ...
Despite rising mortgage rates, the U.S. housing market remained hot in July,
as sales of new homes unexpectedly rose to the second highest level ever.
The Commerce Department said new house sales rose a slight 0.1 percent,
following a 7.4 percent jump in June. Sales were put on a pace to beat last
year's record by more than 6 percent. ... (Washington Post, page E1; Wall
Street Journal, page A2).
DUE OUT TOMORROW: Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment: July 1999
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