BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1996 _____A surge in energy and food prices drove up the CPI-U by a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent in October, but analysts remain confident inflation is well under control. The so-called core rate of inflation -- minus volatile food and energy components -- edged up just 0.2 percent in October. In the year ended in October, the CPI-U advanced 3 percent and the core rate 2.6 percent. Economists say the inflation picture is as good as it has been in decades. Food and energy prices are likely to calm down in the near future, they say ....(Daily Labor Report, pages 2,D-3). _____The first increase in gasoline prices since May helped push consumer prices up 0.3 percent in October, while retail sales posted a modest advance ....(The Washington Post, AP story, page C13; Washington Times, page B12). _____Stock prices again rose to records, as reports on consumer prices and retail sales added evidence that the economy is growing slowly, with little inflation ....(New York Times, pages D1,D6; Wall Street Journal, pages A2,C1). Inflation-adjusted weekly earnings of most U.S. workers tumbled a seasonally adjusted 1.5 percent in October, dragged down by a large drop in hours worked plus an uptick in inflation, BLS reported ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-12). An editorial in the Wall Street Journal on "The Marriage Gap" contains the following -- "Women hold down a lot of jobs in government: BLS reports that in a 1995 work force of some 125 million, about 18 million Americans were employed by governments on all levels (including schools). Another 6 million were employed at nonprofits, which nowadays are often virtual annexes to government. Of this 24 million in government or nonprofit jobs, some 14 million were women." New claims filed with state agencies for unemployment insurance benefits edged down by 4,000 to 328,000, seasonally adjusted, in the week ended Nov. 9, the Labor Department announced ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-1; New York Times, page D1). The Conference Board, a provider of U.S. economic data, said it would alter the makeup of its index of leading economic indicators in an attempt to improve the tool's forecasting powers. The group will delete two of the index's 11 components: The change in sensitive material prices and the change in manufacturers' unfilled orders for durable goods. Both elements have proven to be poor predictors of recessions in recent years. The group will add to the mix a yield curve that measures the interest rate spread between the long-term 10-year Treasury note and the short-term federal funds rate. "The new leading index should provide better-defined warnings of true turning points in business activity and fewer false signals of recession that do not later materialize," said Michael Boldin, the board's senior economist and director of business cycle research ....The board, a nonprofit group with 2.700 corporate and other members, took over index calculation from the Commerce Department last December (Daily Labor Report, page A-10; New York Times, page D4; Wall Street Journal, page B24). AT&T Corp. has decided to give all 127,000 of its employees a paid day off for volunteer work over the next year, the largest and most public corporate commitment so far in the growing community service movement ....(Washington Post, page C11). The rapidly developing science and technology sectors have contributed greatly to global economic productivity and growth in the past decade, but major changes in employment will only be seen over time, according to a new report by OECD. "In all likelihood, the jobs of the future will not be in the industries of today," according to OECD's "Science, Technology and Industry Outlook -- 1996." "Rather they will be in new industries, some of which will be hybrids of old ones." The report paints a fairly bleak future for nonskilled workers. It says high-technology industries will change the nature of economic activity and how the labor market will adapt to the new realities ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-5). DuPont will ax 2,800 jobs, adding to a curious surge of post-election layoffs ....Despite a 20 percent increase in layoffs so far this year compared with the same period in 1995, bad publicity about downsizings earlier this year may have prompted corporations to put off announcing job eliminations in the heat of the campaign, the executive vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas said. Also, while some corporations have announced more than 400,000 layoffs since the beginning of the year, other businesses have contributed to a major employment boom by creating nearly a million new jobs since the beginning of the year. Labor Department statistics indicate the net result has been mixed, with many of the new jobs paying more than the jobs lost, but many laid-off workers facing a pay cut when they take new jobs ....(Washington Times, page B8). The Product Safety Letter has been skirmishing with the Consumer Product Safety Commission over direct access to staff experts at the agency, complaining that the press office filters -- and blocks -- key information, according to "The Regulators," a weekly Washington Post business section feature. A PSL reporter said she has been denied direct access to technical experts at the agency, who often know the most about highly technical issues. She said she was told to deal with the deputy press secretary, who takes the queries and gets the answers or selects the person to interview ....The publisher took his case to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which has written to the commission ....
