Labor month in review
The
August Review
Wage
of a salesman
Cashier,
cook common jobs for youths
Regional
compensation pattern
This month’s issue leads with a discussion of the emergence of cable and other pay television industries. In "Job growth in television: cable versus broadcast, 1958–99," Dominic Toto traces the history of the television industry, examines employment trends in cable and other pay television services and in radio and television broadcasting, and reviews the more significant regulatory, technological, and economic changes that have taken place since the early 1960s. Toto finds that broadcast television accounted for most of the job growth during the early part of the study period, and cable and other pay television had the most growth during the latter part.
The report on producer prices is our final of a roundup of economic events during the last year of the decade. (Articles on employment and consumer prices appeared in February and April, respectively). In "Rising producer prices in 1999 dominated by energy goods," Eleni Xenofondos and William F. Snyders report that the Producer Price Index (PPI) rose at all stages of processing in 1999. Excluding food and energy, the increases for finished goods and intermediate materials ranged from about 1 to 2 percent, respectively; for crude nonfood materials excluding energy, the increase was 14 percent.
The Review often reports on economic conditions of women—their participation in the labor force, marital status, and earnings.This month, in "Married women, work, and values," Mahshid Jalilvand examines the personal-value structures of women to ascertain whether they have any effect on their labor market-related decisions. Women’s personal values appear to be rank-ordered in a hierarchy that differs between working and "nonworking" women. The data indicate that economic and political values are relatively more important for working women than are social and religious values, which are relatively more important for nonworking women.
This month also features a Technical Note explaining how strikes affect the Bureau’s monthly employment figures. Karthik A. Rao, in "The impact of strikes on current employment statistics," emphasizes that it is important for users of the data to understand how strikes affect the estimates "so they can accurately interpret the economic meaning of the change in the number of employees over the month."
Five industries employed more than three-quarters of all retail salespersons in 1998. Of these five industries, automobile dealers and service stations paid salespersons the most, and apparel and accessory stores paid the least. Salespersons in the automobile dealers and service stations industry received $15.75 per hour in 1998. In comparison, salespersons in the apparel and accessory stores industry averaged $7.43 per hour.
The other three most common industries for retail salespersons in 1998 were furniture and home furnishing stores, general merchandise stores, and miscellaneous retail establishments. The mean hourly wage in furniture and home furnishing stores was $10.25 in 1998. In general merchandise stores, the average wage was $7.88 and miscellaneous retail establishments were close behind at $7.76. Additional information is available in Occupational Employment and Wages, 1998, BLS Bulletin 2528.
Cashier, cook common jobs for youths
Among youths aged 15 years old in 1995–97, 38 percent held an "employee" job—defined as an ongoing relationship with a particular employer. By a wide margin, cashier was the most common occupation among 15-year-old females with employee jobs; by a small margin, cook was the most common job for males.
Cashier was the occupation of the longest-held job for 16 percent of the female youths with employee jobs. In comparison, the next most common occupations were waiters and general office clerks, at 6 percent each, Rounding out the top five occupations for 15-year-old females were salesworkers (other commodities) and miscellaneous food occupations, at 5 percent each.
Of the male youths with employee jobs, 8 percent worked as cooks in their longest-held job, while 7 percent held positions as janitors and cleaners. The next most common jobs for males were miscellaneous food occupations, waiters’ and waitresses’ assistants, and cashiers, at 6 percent each. Note that jobs such as babysitting or yard work done on an as-needed basis or for multiple employers are considered "free-lance" jobs, rather than "employee" jobs. Additional information is available from the Report on the Youth Labor Force.
In March 2000, workers in private industry in the Northeast received the highest wages and salaries per hour of any region. The average wages and salaries of private industry workers were as follows:
Northeast-----------$16.37
West ----------------15.45
Midwest ------------13.91
South ---------------13.09
Moreover, the average cost to private employers of benefits also was highest in the Northeast. Workers in the private sector in the Northeast were paid $6.30 per hour on average in benefits, $0.87 more per hour than in the West, $0.98 more than in the Midwest, and $1.58 more than in the South.
Additional information is available in "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, March 2000," news release USDL 00–186.
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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