September 2004, Vol. 127, No. 9
Labor month in review
The September
Review
More than 10 jobs before 40
Summer youth labor force
Veterans’ unemployment in August 2003
Review chief retires
Our lead article welcomes back an annual review of international prices for imports and exports to the United States. Melissa E. Schwartz finds that import price increases abated in 2003 compared with 2002, while the rate of increase in export prices rose substantially. Price increases for petroleum and related products were much less sharp than in the previous year, but those for other imports accelerated somewhat. On the export side, price increases were larger for both agricultural and nonagricultural items.
David Fairris and Edward Levine analyze the decline in unionization in the Mexican workforce. They find that demographic and economic factors such as industry, occupation, and worker characteristics account for a relatively small part of that decline, while institutional and structural changes account for much more.
Kenneth N. Fortson examines the diurnal, or intraday, pattern of occupational injuries. Using injuries data from the Texas Workers’ Compensation Commission and working time data from the Current Population Survey, Fortson concludes that injuries are much more prevalent at night, even after accounting for worker characteristics, broad industry and occupational classification, and length of time at work.
Jonathan A. Schwabish uses data from the Employment Cost Index as the basis of an analysis of possible correlations between wages and benefits. Among workers in the lower 10 percent of earnings, he finds significant negative relationships between wages and benefits such as life insurance and pension plans in several specifications of a regression equation.
Gerald Perrins contributes the first in what we plan as a series of "Reports from the Regions." Perrins, the regional economist in the Bureau’s Philadelphia office, reports on employment trends in the information sector.
David Langdon, Rachel Krantz, and Michael Strople provide a visual essay on post-recession trends in employment and related economic indicators. The visual essay format is another relatively new feature of the Review.
Persons born from 1957 to 1964 held an average of 10.2 jobs from ages 18 to 38. These younger baby-boomers held an average of 4.4 jobs while ages 18 to 22. The average fell to 3.3 jobs while ages 23 to 27, to 2.6 jobs while ages 28 to 32, and to 2.5 jobs from ages 33 to 38. (Jobs that span more than one age group were counted once in each age group, so the overall average number of jobs held is less than the sum of the number of jobs across the age groups.)
On average, men held 10.4 jobs and women 9.9 jobs from age 18 to 38. Men held 4.5 jobs from ages 18 to 22, but only 2.5 jobs from ages 33 to 38. The reduction in the number of jobs held in successive age groups was similar for women. For more information, see "Number of Jobs Held, Labor Market Activity, and Earnings Growth Among Younger Baby Boomers: Recent Results From a Longitudinal Survey," news release USDL 04–1678.
The labor force participation rate for youth—the proportion of the population age 16 to 24 working or looking for work—was 67.2 percent in July 2004, about the same as in July 2003. These were the lowest rates for July since 1966. The proportion of 16- to 24-year-olds enrolled in school in July has grown over the last decade—from 16.3 percent in 1994 to 28.9 percent in 2004—and labor force participation rates for students are typically lower than for nonstudents. Only about half of the youth enrolled in school were in the labor force in July, compared with about three-fourths of those not in school. Find out more in "Employment and Unemployment Among Youth—Summer 2004," news release USDL 04-1590. (The data in this report are not seasonally adjusted.)
Veterans’ unemployment in August 2003
The unemployment rates of male veterans ages 25 to 34 (4.7 percent) and ages 35 to 44 (3.8 percent) were lower than the rates of their nonveteran peers (6.3 and 4.8 percent, respectively) in August 2003. Among men 45 to 54 years, however, veterans had a higher jobless rate than nonveterans (5.4 versus 3.6 percent).
Female veterans ages 25 to 34 had a relatively high unemployment rate of 8.2 percent, but the rate was much lower for those ages 35 to 44 (3.4 percent). Among female nonveterans in these age groups, unemployment rates did not differ nearly as much—6.2 percent for those 25 to 34 years and 5.2 percent for those 35 to 44 years. Female veterans ages 45 to 54 had a jobless rate of 5.4 percent, little different from their nonveteran contemporaries.
The survey of veterans was conducted for the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the U.S. Census Bureau as a special supplement to the August 2003 Current Population Survey. The 2003 supplement was co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans Employment and Training Service. These supplements have been conducted every two years since 1985. To learn more, see "Employment Situation of Veterans: August 2003," USDL 04–1378.
Deborah P. Klein, Editor-in Chief of Monthly Labor Review and Bureau of Labor Statistics Associate Commissioner for Publications and Special Studies, retired last month after 38 years of service to the Bureau.
Communications regarding the Monthly Labor Review may be sent to the Editor-in-Chief by e-mail to mlr@bls.gov, by mail at 2 Massachusetts Avenue NE, Room 2850, Washington, DC, 20212, or by fax to (202) 691–7890.
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