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BLS DAILY REPORT, MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 1998
__The economy added a seasonally adjusted 370,000 new nonfarm payroll
jobs in December and 3.2 million in 1997, according to BLS. The rate of
job growth and the broadbased nature of the gain exceeded most analysts'
expectations. BLS' separate household survey showed that the jobless
rate inched up to 4.7 percent in December, from 4.6 percent one month
earlier. The average jobless rate for 1997 was 4.9 percent, the lowest
since 1973. The average annual unemployment rate has not dipped lower
since 1969 when it hit 3.5 percent. Fourth-quarter job growth was
particularly strong ....Most analysts expect a slowdown in job growth in
coming months, when they believe the Asian financial crisis will
somewhat quell the rapid expansion .... Inflation watchers were
somewhat calmed by the slight 1 cent increase to $12.48 in average
hourly earnings, following four months of relatively large gains. For
the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.7 percent. When
adjusted for the increase in the CPI, real wages rose by 2.5 percent in
1997, much larger than the 0.5 percent advance in 1996, or the 0.4
percent advance in 1995. In fact, Commissioner Katharine G. Abraham
said, real wages have risen faster than any time in at least 10 years
.....(Daily Labor Report, page D-1).
__U.S. closes out 1997 with big jobs gain. Unemployment rate up
slightly in December ....(Washington Post, Jan. 10, page F1).
__Riding a strong economy, the nation's employers added 370,000 new jobs
to their payrolls last month - far beyond expectations - and at year's
end, employment reached record levels. Not since the government began
to compile employment numbers, starting in 1948, has such a larger
percentage of Americans worked: 64.1 percent in December, having
reached 64 percent for the first time in November, up from 63.2 percent
in 1996. Immigrants, students, men and women over 55, and younger women
are swelling payrolls, drawn to jobs at a moment when they are
relatively easy to get - and because people need money. Many new
workers are single mothers or second earners in a family ....(New York
Times, Jan. 110, page B1).
__Unemployment remained low in December ....The jobs gain was both large
and exceptionally broad-based ....(Wall Street Journal, page A2).
Wholesale inventories rose slightly in November while sales continued
their slide, the Commerce Department said ....(Washington Post, Jan. 10,
page F1).
A new prevailing wage policy for nonagricultural immigrant workers has
employers afraid they will be forced to pay higher wages to such
employees than they did under the previous system ....The new wage
rules, which took effect Jan. 1, mandate use of data generated by the
BLS division of occupational employment statistics for assessing
prevailing wages, instead of information from the state employment
security agencies, which had been used for years ....As for employer
fears about higher prevailing wages, the Labor Department contends that
some wage determinations will be higher and some will be lower. With
increased uniformity of data being used, DOL sources said they think
they should be able to issue wage decisions more quickly ....The legal
counsel and director of government regulation for an employer group
concerned about immigration issues said OES uses substantially fewer
occupational categories than had been used under the old system, which
gives further rise to concern about higher wages ....(Daily Labor
Report, page A-8).
The nation's college freshmen sound more bored with school, less
interested in politics or social issues, and just plain lazier than any
class in a generation. In a massive survey of their views, this year's
freshmen are reporting record levels of academic and civic apathy and
are continuing to embrace more conservative social values than college
students from the last few decades. The survey, which has been
conducted annually for the past 30 years, is being released by
researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles
.....(Washington Post, page A1)_____The survey of college freshmen
confirms what professors and administrators said they have been sensing,
that students are increasingly disengaged and view higher education less
as an opportunity to expand their minds and more as a means to increase
their incomes. The annual nationwide poll shows that two suggested goals
of education - "to be very well off financially" and "to develop a
meaningful philosophy of life" - have switched places in the past three
decades ....(New York Times, page A11)
DUE OUT TOMORROW:
Consumer Price Index - December 1997
Real Earnings: December 1997
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