> BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2001:
>
> The National Bureau of Economic Research says the U.S. economy fell into
> recession in March, ending a 10-year expansion that was longer than all
> others in the nation's history. Widely anticipated by private
> forecasters, NBER's pronouncements are regarded as the official word on
> business cycle turning points. The NBER's finding that the recession
> began in March means the downturn is nearly 9 months old. Recent jumps in
> unemployment, as well as other indicators of the weak economy, were cited
> by the bureau as evidence that the downturn merits being termed a
> recession. Since the organization began tracking business cycles,
> politicians as well as private analysts have deferred to the bureau's
> expertise. Based in Cambridge, Mass., the NBER is a private, nonprofit,
> nonpartisan research organization whose members are mainly academics in
> colleges and universities across the country (Daily Labor Report, page
> A-6. Statement by the National Bureau of Economic Research declaring that
> the recession began in March 2001 on page E-5).
>
> The U.S. economy has been in recession since March, the last month of a
> 10-year expansion that was the longest in U.S. history, a committee of
> academic economists announced yesterday, writes John M. Berry and Steven
> Pearlstein in The Washington Post, page A 1. However, the economic
> contraction that began in April was so gradual that it might not have fit
> the committee's definition of a recession except for the September 11
> terrorist attacks, according to the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the
> National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). These attacks damaged the
> economy significantly, convincing the six economists that a recession was
> underway. "The committee gave greatest weight to payroll employment, which
> peaked in March, calling it 'the broadest monthly indicator... in the
> entire economy,'" says Berry.
>
> The group of economists that tracks business cycles made official today
> what has been apparent to laid-off workers and struggling businesses for
> months: the longest economic expansion on record gave way earlier this
> year in the first recession in a decade and the 10th since World War II
> (Richard W. Stevenson, The New York Times, page C1; The Wall Street
> Journal, page A2).
>
> Office and administrative support jobs, such as secretaries and clerks,
> made up 17.7 percent of employment in 2000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
> says ("Work Week" feature, The Wall Street Journal, page A1).
>
> About 20 percent of 756 companies surveyed by Yellowpages.com.Inc., San
> Francisco, say workplace productivity has dropped since September 11
> ("Work Week" feature, The Wall Street Journal, page A1).
>
> Consumer confidence unexpectedly contracted for the fifth consecutive
> month in November as Americans nursed worries about layoffs and their
> buying power. The New York-based Conference Board said today that its
> Consumer Confidence Index fell to 82.2 from a revised 85.3 in October.
> Analysts were expecting an increase to 86.5 (Lisi de Bourbon, Associated
> Press
> http://www.nandotimes.com/business/story/181080p-1748253c.html).
>
> U.S. retail gasoline prices fell for the 10th consecutive week, dropping 4
> cents to $1.13 a gallon during a 4-day holiday weekend that is one of the
> busiest for travel, an Energy Department survey showed
> (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000094394nov27.story?coll=la%2Dheadlin
> es%2Dbusiness11/27/01).
>
> Manufacturing sector losses plunge a four-county area in North Carolina
> into unemployment, according to Sue Anne Pressley, who uses BLS data in
> her discussion in the November 24 Washington Post article (page A3). In
> September 2000, the unemployment rate here (the article is datelined
> Hickory, North Carolina) was a rock-bottom 2.2 percent, and with its
> triumvirate of textiles, furniture making and fiber optics, the so-called
> Unifour area seemed secure in its prosperity. But by May of this year, the
> four-county area was in a wholly unexpected position, with an unemployment
> rate that had climbed more precipitously over the previous year than in
> any other metropolitan area in the nation, from 1.9 percent in May 2000 to
> a worrisome 5.7 percent. For several months, the area held the unwanted
> distinction of leading the country in percentage increases in its jobless
> rate, and by September unemployment was up to 6.8 percent. While
> manufacturing has been sagging around the country, that is particularly
> true in North Carolina, a leader in textiles and furniture making.
> According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1.1 million manufacturing
> jobs were lost in the United States between October 2000 and October 2001,
> the 15th consecutive month of decline.
>
> DUE OUT TOMORROW: Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment: October
> 2001
>
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