> BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2001:
>
> RELEASED TODAY: Regional and state unemployment rates were stable from
> August to September, but higher than a year earlier. All four regions
> reported little or no change over the month, and 44 states and the
> District of Columbia reported shifts of 0.3 percentage point or less, the
> Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The national jobless rate was
> unchanged in September at 4.9 percent. Nonfarm employment decreased in 30
> states and the District of Columbia. It is likely that the events of
> September 11 had little effect on the September employment and
> unemployment figures at either the national level or below.
>
> The average hourly wage rose to $14.50 in September from $13.89 a year
> earlier, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Tailpiece of The Wall Street
> Journal's "Work Week" feature, page A1).
>
> Signaling just how superheated the local economy was until the technology
> sector turned down, paychecks in several Bay Area counties grew last year
> at some of the fastest rates in the nation, the Labor Department reported
> yesterday. With compensation swollen by income from the exercise of stock
> options, San Mateo County led the nation with 30.2 percent growth in
> average pay from 1999. Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley,
> was second with a 24.5 percent rise, while Santa Cruz County, just outside
> what is generally considered the Bay Area, was fourth, with a 15.5 percent
> increase. San Francisco County came in eighth, with a 12.2 percent rise.
> Santa Clara, meanwhile overtook New York for the first time as the county
> with the highest level of average pay in the nation, reaching $76,076 last
> year, more than double the national average of $35,296. San Mateo was
> third, with average pay of $66,943, while San Francisco was sixth, with
> $57,626. Labor market experts cautioned that last year's information
> portrays an economy that no longer exists. "The data do not reflect
> current economic conditions, nor do they reflect what has happened in the
> stock market this year," said Stanley Stephenson, regional commissioner of
> the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics
> (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/10
> /19BU25993.DTL).
>
> The per-capita median annual income by race/ethnicity in 2000, as shown in
> a page A1 graph in USA Today, shows non-Hispanic whites at $25,278,
> Asian/Pacific Islanders with an income of $22,352, Blacks at $15,197 and
> Hispanics with $12,306. Source of the data is given as the Census
> Bureau's Money Income in the United States, 2000.
>
> The index of leading economic indicators declined 0.5 percent in
> September, the second straight monthly drop, according to figures released
> by the Conference Board, a New York based business research organization.
> The report adds to evidence of how weak the U.S. economy was before the
> terrorist attacks (Daily Report, page D-1; The Washington Post, page E2;
> The Wall Street Journal, page A2).
>
> With layoffs mounting and spreading to every industry, the nation's
> economy has quickly gone from full-employment to one where laid-off tech
> workers and stockbrokers are competing with out-of-work bellhops for
> low-wage jobs. In the third quarter, U.S. employers announced almost
> 600,000 job cuts -- about 50 percent more than in each of the previous two
> quarters, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., a Chicago
> outplacement firm. That included more than 200,000 cuts in the wake of
> the September 11 attacks. Already this year companies have announced more
> job cuts than they did during the 1990-91 recession years, Challenger Gray
> said. The labor market shift has had a dramatic effect for restaurant and
> retail businesses. In the last 2 months, the restaurant industry shed
> 68,000 from payrolls, accounting for one-fourth of the net job losses
> nationwide in August and September, according to the Labor Department.
> And now tens of thousands of newly laid-off hotel and tourist workers are
> adding to the intense battle for many of these jobs
> (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000084276oct23.story?coll=la%2Dheadlin
> es%2Dbusiness).
>
> A research group said Monday that online holiday retail sales worldwide
> are expected to grow 39 percent this year despite the tragic events of
> September 11, with the strongest growth coming outside the U.S market.
> GartnerG2, a research unit of Gartner Group, forecast worldwide online
> sales at 25.3 billion dollars this year
> (http://www.nandotimes.com/business/story/149376p-1462306c.html)..
>
> More people curtail holiday travel as jitters and a weak economy lead them
> to stay home, says The Wall Street Journal (page B1). In response, many
> airlines have resorted to offering more cut-rate fares at holiday time
> than in years past, and some hotels and cruise lines are offering special
> deals. A survey by the Travel Business Roundtable, a tourism lobbying
> group, found that 29 percent of people who had planned to fly over
> Thanksgiving had changed their mind. Of those, 40 percent said they would
> stay home and 60 percent said they would drive. About 17 percent of the
> people who had planned to fly over Christmas changed their minds too, the
> survey of 800 people found. So far, New York hotels on average have
> booked only 75 percent of their rooms for Thanksgiving, a time when the
> city is usually packed because of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and
> the start of the Christmas shopping season.
>
> Due to the military response to the recent U.S. terrorist attacks, fewer
> people are leaving the armed forces. That could be a boon for veterans
> already searching for jobs, says The Wall Street Journal (page B14). Many
> military personnel scheduled to be discharged in the next year are
> "pulling their paperwork" and considering re-enlisting, says Bill Gaul,
> president and CEO of Destiny Group. The San Diego company operates
> electronic recruiting sites for veterans. Roughly 200,000 people are
> discharged from the military each year. Most ex-military personnel
> already have an employment advantage over those who never served: security
> clearances.
>
> DUE OUT TOMORROW: Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers: Third
> Quarter 2001
>
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