BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2000
RELEASED TODAY: The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods rose 0.9
percent in September, seasonally adjusted. This index declined 0.2 percent
in August and showed no change in July. The Index for Finished Goods other
than foods and energy advanced 0.3 percent in September, after edging up 0.1
percent in the prior month. Prices received by manufacturers of
intermediate goods increased 0.7 percent, following a 0.2 percent decrease a
month earlier. The crude goods index rose 5.3 percent, after falling 1.5
percent in August. ...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to receive the funding it needs
from Congress to begin gathering data on how Americans use their free time,
BLS Commissioner Katharine Abraham said. Abraham, speaking to the National
Economists Club, said funding for the $4.3 million time-use survey project
has been retained in the conference agreement on the agency's 2001 budget
request, but is still being considered by congressional appropriators. The
conference report on the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education
appropriations bills has not yet been filed and no date has been set for a
vote, a spokesman for the Senate Appropriations Committee told the Bureau of
National Affairs. If funding for the project is approved, production of
statistics measuring the time Americans spend in paid work, unpaid work, and
other nonmarket activities could begin by 2003, Abraham said. Time-use
information is important because it could be used by policymakers to place a
value on investment to human capital, such as parents spending more time
reading to their children. "The absence of information on time-use is the
single biggest hole in statistical information in the United States,"
Abraham said. "We need to be sure we are looking broadly enough at the
statistics, and that is why time-use information is important." Several
other projects proposed by BLS to improve economic data are not expected to
be approved by Congress this year, Abraham said. Those projects include an
initiative to enhance local area unemployment statistics and a plan to add a
measure of nonresidential construction to the PPI. ... (Brett Ferguson in
Daily Labor Report, page A-11).
__A sharp rise in world oil prices boosted prices of goods imported by U.S.
businesses in September, while prices of exported goods rose modestly,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Imported petroleum prices
jumped 14.1 percent in September, the largest monthly rise since February.
As a result, prices of all imported goods climbed 1.5 percent on a
seasonally adjusted basis last month, also the largest monthly advance since
February. Over the year ended in September, import prices have risen by 6.4
percent. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-1).
__Prices of imports other than oil showed the largest decline in one and a
half years last month, suggesting the nation's appetite for foreign-made
goods is helping contain inflation. The import price index less oil fell
0.3 percent in September, as costs fell for food, business equipment, autos,
and consumer goods. ... A separate report showed that the number of
Americans filing the first time for state unemployment benefits rose 5,000
last week, to 306,000. The less-volatile 4-week average for new claims fell
to 301,500 -- the lowest since mid-August -- from 306,500 a week earlier,
suggesting that the demand for workers is showing no signs of weakening. ...
(Bloomberg News in New York Times, page C2).
__Rising oil prices have yet to translate into higher inflation overall, but
combined with unrest in the Middle East and colder weather approaching they
are feeding inflationary concerns. Oil prices soared as escalating Mideast
tensions sparked fears of possible supply disruptions. ... Economists are
divided about the effects of rising petroleum prices on growth and
inflation.
The report on import prices showed the cost of petroleum imports rose 14.1
percent during September, after a 0.1 percent increase in August. But
overall import prices rose just 1.5 percent for the month, and nonpetroleum
imports actually were cheaper by 0.3 percent last month. ... Separately,
initial claims for unemployment insurance rose a moderate 5,000 to 306,000
last week. ... (Wall Street Journal, page A2).
New economy productivity gains are taking hold in surprising places, says
Business Week (Oct. 19, page 98). Output per employee rose at a 2 percent
to 2.4 percent annual rate in every region of the country from 1995 to 1998.
In addition, the difference in job growth and unemployment rates between
regions is lower than ever before. "This is the most evenly distributed
expansion since World War II," says the director of microeconomic policy
analysis at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The primary reason for this
remarkably uniform regional performance: High-tech industries and products
are everywhere. ... It's not just productivity growth that seems relatively
even among regions -- it's labor-market performance as well. The region
with the highest unemployment rate, the West, is only 1.1 percentage points
higher than the Midwest, the region with the lowest unemployment. "It's the
smallest difference in unemployment rates since the data have been
collected," says Jim Campbell, an economist with the Local Area Statistical
program at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unlike the past, "we don't see
any states with particularly high unemployment." ...
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