> BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2001:
>
> RELEASED TODAY: Regional and state unemployment rates were generally
> stable in March. All four regions reported little or no change from
> February, and 44 states and the District of Columbia recorded shifts of
> 0.3 percentage point or less, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S.
> Department of Labor reported today. The national jobless rate was little
> changed at 4.3 percent in March. Nonfarm employment increased in 29
> states.
>
> The proportion of two-income families in the United States inched higher
> during 2000, rising 0.2 percentage points to 53.2 percent, the Bureau of
> Labor Statistics says in an annual report. Of the 71.7 million families
> in the United States, 59.6 million reported having at least one employed
> adult and 29.1 million had both husband and wife who were employed during
> 2000, according to BLS's sample of 50,000 households that receive the
> agency's monthly Current Population Survey. BLS defines families as
> households containing two or more persons related by birth, marriage, or
> adoption. Only 19.2 percent of the nation's 54.7 million married couple
> families lived on the earnings of the husband alone in 2000, about the
> same as the proportions in BLS data over the last 5 years. The same holds
> true for the proportion of married-couple families in which only the wife
> works -- 5.4 percent in 2000 (Daily Labor Report, page D-1).
>
> The percentage of employers offering flexible scheduling opportunities --
> such as telecommuting, flex time, and compressed work weeks -- has
> increased dramatically in the past 5 years according to the Society for
> Human Resource Management's "2001 Benefits Survey". At the same time,
> widely touted fringe offerings -- such as corporate concierge services,
> pets at work, paid sabbaticals, and mortgage down-payment programs --
> remain rare, SHRM says. The annual report details the responses of 754 HR
> practitioners surveyed in fall 2000 regarding 160 benefit offerings. The
> very large organizations were not alone in offering rich benefit packages,
> SHRM reports. The organization's analysis of all the benefits in the
> survey showed that employers with 2,501 to 5,000 workers tend to offer the
> most benefits. But certain "family friendly" benefits have grown steadily
> since 1997. The Society for Human Resource Management is located in
> Alexandria, Va. (Daily Labor Report, page A-9).
>
> A new study finds industries with large minority workforces lag behind
> those dominated by white employees in the percentage of workers enrolling
> in employer-provided health insurance. The study, which was supported by a
> grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, was led by Lisa
> A. Cubbins, principal health research scientist in the Centers for Public
> Health Research, Battelle Memorial Research Institute. It is based on
> U.S. Census Bureau data on 197 industries between 1988 and 1997. Cubbins
> compared health insurance enrollment across industries and over time,
> initially predicting that incrased racial diversity in the workforce would
> not translate to a drop-off in health coverage. However, the gap in
> health benefits between white-dominated industries and those more racially
> mixed widened between 1988 and 1997 (Daily Labor Report, page A-4).
>
> "Rising incomes for people in the middle and at the bottom of the economy
> have all sorts of positive spin-offs," writes E. J. Dionne, Jr. on the op.
> ed. page of The Washington Post (page A25, online
> http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39203-2001Apr19.html). During
> the 1990s, crime dropped sharply and so did welfare dependency. The
> latest figures released this week showed a continued drop in teen
> pregnancy rates. By contrast, unemployment was higher during the boom of
> the 1980s, and economic growth was distributed more unequally, tilting
> toward the top. It also turns out that, according to the measures
> compiled annually by William Bennett, many of the social indicators
> (including time and teen pregnancy) were going the wrong way in the 1980s.
> Low unemployment also increases the bargaining power of employees. They
> can command higher wages and better benefits. As a result, the 1990s saw
> a halt in the growth of income inequality that had been a rule in our
> country for 2 decades.
>
> Over the past two weeks, gasoline prices are up 6 to 8 cents a gallon
> nationally. And in some areas that had high prices last year, such as the
> Great Lakes region, gasoline prices are up 23 cents a gallon in the last
> month. The inflation at the gas pump comes at a time when the national
> economy is teetering and economists are concerned that higher prices will
> be the final straw for consumers. Unfortunately, there are no quick fixes,
> energy analysts say, because the problem stems from refineries unable to
> keep up with demand. Over the past several weeks, several large refineries
> were shut down for normal seasonal maintenance. This caused oil companies
> to draw down inventories well below normal. (Christian Science Monitor,
> online http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/04/20/fpcon-natl.shtml)
>
> New claims filed with state agencies for unemployment insurance dropped a
> modest 10,000 to a total of 385,000 for the week ended April 14, according
> to figures by the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S.
> Department of Labor. The 4-week moving average was 382,250, which was
> slightly higher than the previous week's revised average of 381,500. This
> is the third consecutive increase in the average, increasing the figure to
> its highest level since April 1996. "The labor market is weak, but is not
> collapsing," says an economist at Merrill Lynch. "Claims would need to
> rise into the mid-400,000 range before signaling a recession" (Daily Labor
> Report, page D-7; Chigaco Tribune online,
> http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/businessnews/article/0,2669,SAV-010
> 4200249,FF.html)
>
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