Labor month in review
The
June Review
Half
of students are in labor force
Productivity
up in most industries
Pay
and benefits
Making comparisons is the medium of exchange of economic analysis. Is the rate of inflation higher today than it was yesterday? Are wages higher for white-collar or blue-collar occupations? Is unemployment more or less of a problem in one area compared to another?
In the case of unemployment, comparisons across areas of a single Nation, such as the United States, are facilitated by the existence of a common set of concepts and definitions of employment and unemployment and by a consistent system of estimating data that conform to those definitions. In the case of international comparisons of unemployment, in contrast, the first step must be to carefully study the concepts, definitions, and methods used to calculate the data. Every country’s statistical service may have a different analytical focus, and, as Constance Sorrentino points out in the lead article, "No single definition can possibly satisfy all analytical purposes." Sorrentino’s article goes on to harmonize, to the extent possible, the unemployment statistics of a wide range of industrialized economies. At the end of the exercise, her summary of the data still indicates that recent unemployment rates in the United States are lower than those in Europe and Canada, whether looked at using U.S., Canadian, or European concepts and definitions.
Stephen A. Wandner and Andrew Stettner investigate the decline in the unemployment insurance recipiency rate—the number of persons receiving unemployment insurance benefits divided by the number of persons counted as unemployed in the Current Population Survey. From rates averaging 49 percent in the 1950s, recipiency fell to 28.5 percent in 1984 before stabilizing in the low-to-mid 30-percent range in the early 1990s. Wandner and Stettner find that more than half of all unemployed workers do not file for unemployment benefits, either because they think they are not eligible or because they are optimistic about quickly finding new work.
Thomas M. Beers analyzes the most recent data on flexible schedules and working shifts other than a "regular" day shift. As of 1997, just over a quarter of all full-time workers reported some degree of flexibility in their work schedules. This represents a more-than-doubling of the share of workers reporting flexible scheduling in 1985. The proportion of workers working on alternative shifts, conversely, changed very little over the 12-year period, remaining at about 1 worker in 6.
Half of students are in labor force
More than half of America’s 16- to 24- year-olds were enrolled in school in October 1999. About 9 million were in high school and 9.4 million were in college. Overall, the labor force participation rate for 16- to 24-year-olds enrolled in college was 58.5 percent. Among high school students, 41.2 percent were in the labor force. The labor force participation rate among all youths attending school was 50.1 percent. Find additional information in "College Enrollment and Work Activity of 1999 High School Graduates," news release USDL 00–136.
Productivity up in most industries
In 1998, labor productivity, as measured by output per hour, increased in 80 percent of the service-producing and mining industries analyzed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Output growth was recorded by 82 percent of the industries, while hours of labor grew in 54 percent of the industries. Nearly half of the industries registering productivity growth also posted declines in unit labor costs.
In 1997, the most recent year for which output data are available for manufacturing, output per hour increased in 74 percent of that sector’s industries. Output rose in 77 percent of manufacturing industries, while hours of labor input rose in 63 percent. Unit labor costs declined in 58 of the 120 industries covered in the manufacturing sector.
Additional information is available from "Productivity and Costs: Service-Producing and Mining Industries, 1987–98" news release USDL 00–156, and "Productivity and Costs: Manufacturing Industries, 1987–97," news release USDL 00–155.
In March 1999, employer costs for benefits for civilian workers averaged $5.58 per hour worked. Wages and salaries were $14.72 and accounted for 72.5 percent of compensation costs. Benefits accounted for the remaining 27.5 percent.
Legally required benefits, such as Social Security and unemployment insurance, averaged $1.65 per hour, 8.1 percent of total compensation. Such benefits were the largest nonwage compensation cost. Paid leave, with an average cost of $1.34 per hour worked, was the next largest and accounted for 6.6 percent of total compensation. Following leave were insurance ($1.29 or 6.4 percent), retirement and savings benefits (76 cents or 3.7 percent), and supplemental pay (51 cents or 2.5 percent). Get more information on compensation costs from Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, 1986–99, (PDF 719K) BLS Bulletin 2526.
Communications regarding the Monthly Labor Review may be sent to the Editor-in-Chief at 2 Massachusetts Avenue NE, Room 2850, Washington, DC, 20212, or faxed to (202) 691–7890.
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