(The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Archived articles from The Editor's Desk
—Chronological archives: 2001

December 2001

• Layoffs in November (12/31/01)
• Spending drops on entertainment, pensions and insurance (12/28/01)
• Employee and freelance jobs among youths (12/27/01)
• Injuries and illnesses in goods-producing and service-producing industries in 2000 (12/26/01)

• Boys, girls equally likely to be "employees" by age 17 (12/21/01)
• Benefits vary somewhat by region (12/20/01)
• Rate of on-the-job injuries and illnesses at record low (12/19/01)
• Labor force participation trends for women and men (12/18/01)
• Consumer Price Index unchanged in November (12/17/01)

• Producer prices decrease again in November (12/14/01)
• Import prices down again in November (12/13/01)
• Industries on the wane, 2000-2010 (12/12/01)
• Youth segment of labor force to grow fastest (12/11/01)
• Unemployment rose in November (12/10/01)

• Third-quarter productivity growth revised downward (12/07/01)
• Fastest growing industries, 2000-2010 (12/06/01)
• Labor force to continue to diversify (12/05/01)
• Fastest growing jobs, 2000-2010 (12/04/01)
• Layoffs increase substantially in October (12/03/01)

November 2001

• Some service industries grow faster in recessions (11/30/01)
• Services in recession (11/29/01)
• Retail employment and establishment size (11/28/01)
• Most manufacturing employees work in larger establishments (11/27/01)
• Office, administrative support largest occupation (11/26/01)

• Lowest paid jobs in 2000 (11/23/01)
• Highest paying occupations in 2000 (11/21/01)
• Composition of change in real earnings in October (11/20/01)
• Consumer prices down 0.3 percent in October (11/19/01)
• Extended mass layoffs up sharply in third quarter (11/16/01)

• Blacks, men most likely to experience unemployment (11/15/01)
• Value of quality changes for 2002 passenger cars and light trucks (11/14/01)
• Decline in producer prices in October (11/13/01)
• Sharp drop in import prices in October (11/09/01)
• Productivity rises as output and hours fall (11/08/01)

• Working full time, year round at new high in 2000 (11/07/01)
• Large drop in payroll employment in October (11/06/01)
• Unemployment rate jumped in October (11/05/01)
• Counties with largest employment gains in 2000 (11/02/01)
• Highest increase in wages and salaries in West (11/01/01)

October 2001 

• Job growth in suburbs versus cities (10/31/01)
• Benefit costs for State and local government workers up sharply in past 3 months (10/30/01)
• Layoffs hit hotels, airlines (10/29/01)
• Employment costs up 4.1 percent (10/26/01)
• Weekly earnings in the third quarter (10/25/01)

• Employment growth fastest in Loudoun County, Virginia (10/24/01)
• Santa Clara County had top pay level in 2000 (10/23/01)
• Consumer prices up 0.4 percent in September (10/22/01)
• San Mateo County, California had highest growth in pay in 2000 (10/19/01)
• Family structure and employment of 15-year-olds (10/18/01)

• Producer prices rise again (10/17/01)
• Import prices up in September (10/12/01)
• Gap widens between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area pay (10/11/01)
• About one in ten 16-year-old students working more than half-time (10/10/01)
• Payroll employment fell in September (10/09/01)

• Are youths working more now than in the past? (10/05/01)
• San Jose again leads nation in annual pay (10/04/01)
• Mexico has biggest increase in hourly compensation in 2000 (10/03/01)
• Pay in private sector slightly higher than in government (10/02/01)
• San Jose has biggest pay hike again (10/01/01)

September 2001

• Probation officers and correctional treatment specialists—working to rehabilitate offenders (09/28/01)
• Drop in foreign factory wage costs (09/27/01)
• Financial sector had biggest raise in 2000 (09/26/01)

• Medical transcriptionists: making medical histories (09/25/01)
• Highest pay in 2000: Connecticut (09/24/01)
• Working more than one job in 2000 (09/21/01)
• Massachusetts, California tops in pay gains (09/20/01)
• Consumer prices inch up in August (09/19/01)

• Sales engineers: technical expertise plus people skills (09/18/01)
• Producer prices up in August (09/17/01)
• Small change in import prices in August (09/14/01)
• Average annual pay increase in 2000 (09/13/01)
• Insurance prices: one up, one down (09/12/01)

• Unemployment rate rose sharply in August (09/10/01)
• Keeping the environment clean (09/07/01)
• Downward revision in second-quarter productivity growth (09/06/01)
• Women's earnings 76 percent of men's in 2000 (09/05/01)
• U.S. led in factory productivity gains in 2000 (09/04/01)

August 2001

• Falling prices for telecommunications (08/31/01)
• New price indexes for food stores (08/30/01)
• Low earnings of female high school dropouts (08/29/01)

• Increase in job-related homicides in 2000 (08/28/01)
• Lowest July labor force participation rate for youth since 1972 (08/27/01)
• Work-related fatalities decrease in construction industry (08/24/01)
• Extended mass layoffs sharply higher in second quarter (08/23/01)
• Youth employment, unemployment both rise in summer (08/22/01)

• Decline in fatal on-the-job highway incidents (08/21/01)
• Most extended mass layoffs in 2000 involved fewer than 150 workers (08/20/01)
• Decrease in consumer prices in July (08/17/01)
• Women's earnings growth higher than men's at all education levels, 1979-2000 (08/16/01)
• Fatal work injuries in 2000 (08/15/01)

• Extended mass layoffs most common in manufacturing industries (08/14/01)
• Producer prices fall again (08/13/01)
• Largest drop in import prices since 1992 (08/10/01)
• Unit labor costs in second quarter (08/09/01)
• Manufacturing productivity falls for second quarter in a row (08/08/01)

• Unemployment rates in July (08/07/01)
• Payroll employment down in July (08/06/01)
• Employment cost increase by occupation (08/03/01)
• Displacement rates among blue-collar and white-collar workers (08/02/01)
• Midwesterners are most likely to be on the job (08/01/01)

July 2001

• Displacement rate still highest in West (07/31/01)

• Wages, benefit costs for State and local government workers both up 1.1 percent in past 3 months (07/30/01)
• Employment costs in private industry rise 4.0 percent over the year (07/27/01)
• Cost shares vary among manufacturing industries (07/26/01)
• Manufacturing employment by region, 1999 (07/25/01)
• Displaced workers reemployed in the same industry, 2000 (07/24/01)

• Variation in women's employment across metropolitan areas, 1999 (07/23/01)
• Weekly earnings by demographics in second quarter (07/20/01)
• Consumer prices up 0.2 percent in June (07/19/01)
• Finding a new job after displacement (07/18/01)
• Displacement rate declined in late 1990s (07/17/01)

• Producer prices fall in June (07/16/01)
• Continued downward trend in import prices  (07/13/01)
• Mixed multifactor productivity progress in biggest manufacturing industries (07/12/01)
• Benefits in State and local government, 2001 (07/11/01)
• Hourly earnings highest in Middle Atlantic (07/10/01)

• Another large job loss in manufacturing (07/09/01)
• Slower rise in out-of-pocket health care spending in 1999 (07/06/01)
• Health benefits 5.6 percent of total compensation (07/05/01)
• Five million new jobs in just ten occupations (07/03/01)
• Average compensation $22.15 per hour (07/02/01)

June 2001

• Tenure down for men, up for women (06/29/01)

• Consumers spend more on apparel in 1999 (06/28/01)
• Education pays (06/27/01)
• The labor force is getting older (06/26/01)
• Slower growth in labor force expected in next 25 years (06/25/01)
• Recent immigrants and educational attainment (06/22/01)

• Most poor consumers are single individuals (06/21/01)
• Long-term gains in mining productivity (06/20/01)
• Single parents allot higher share of spending to necessities in 1998 (06/19/01)
• Consumer prices increase 0.4 percent in May (06/18/01)
• Producer prices edge up in May (06/15/01)

• Export prices down four months in a row (06/14/01)
• Long-term declines in unit labor costs among service-producing industries (06/13/01)
• Employment change in membership organizations (06/12/01)
• Jump in unit labor costs in manufacturing (06/11/01)
• No change in new vehicle prices in 2000 (06/08/01)

• Retail trade productivity: 1990-99 (06/07/01)
• Productivity down in first quarter (06/06/01)
• Apparel prices lower in 2000 (06/05/01)
• Employment situation changed little in May (06/04/01)
• Food inflation accelerates in 2000 (06/01/01)

May 2001

• Seeing with sound (05/31/01)
• From watches to pianos: precision instrument and equipment repairers (05/30/01)

• Medical care inflation continues to rise (05/29/01)
• Independent contractors in 2001 (05/25/01)
• Steep increase in energy prices again in 2000 (05/24/01)
• Sources of retirement income (05/23/01)
• Unit labor costs drop in 50 manufacturing industries (05/22/01)

• Consumer durables prices flat in 2000 (05/21/01)
• Extended mass layoffs climb in first quarter 2001 (05/18/01)
• Consumer prices up 0.3 percent in April (05/17/01)
• Productivity higher in over two-thirds of manufacturing industries (05/16/01)
• New information on job creation and destruction (05/15/01)

• Rise in producer prices in April (05/14/01)
• Third decline in a row for import prices (05/11/01)
• Full-time on-call workers most likely to be men (05/10/01)
• Nonfarm business unit labor costs up again (05/09/01)
• Despite growth, contingent worker rate little changed (05/08/01)

• Unemployment up in April (05/07/01)
• Contract company employees more educated than traditional workers (05/04/01)
• Employment of mothers with infants decreases again (05/03/01)
• Two-thirds of temporary workers employed in services or manufacturing (05/02/01)
• State and local government employment costs up 3.3 percent over the year (05/01/01)

April 2001

• Occupations of independent contractors (04/30/01)

• Employment costs increase 4.2 percent in past 12 months (04/27/01)
• Families experiencing unemployment in 2000 (04/26/01)
• Less than 10 percent of workers in nontraditional arrangements (04/25/01)
• Both spouses work in most married-couple families (04/24/01)
• Most of last year's high school graduates in labor force (04/23/01)

• Employment in families maintained by women rose in 2000 (04/20/01)
• Weekly earnings of full-time workers in first quarter (04/19/01)
• Consumer prices up 0.1 percent in March (04/18/01)
• Employment growth in 2000 by race and Hispanic origin (04/17/01)
• College enrollment of last year's high school graduates (04/16/01)

• Producer prices edge down in March (04/13/01)
• Petroleum import prices down in March (04/12/01)
• Another rise in multifactor productivity (04/11/01)
• The U.S.-Canada manufacturing productivity gap (04/10/01)
• Decline in payroll employment in March (04/09/01)

• U.S. had largest productivity gains in manufacturing in 1999 (04/06/01)
• Younger workers have highest poverty rates (04/05/01)
• Sources of lost-worktime injuries and illnesses (04/04/01)
• Compensation stats for the new century (04/03/01)
• Days away from work highest for carpal tunnel syndrome (04/02/01)

March 2001

• Prevalence of bonus plans in service sector (03/30/01)
• Truck drivers have the most lost-time injuries (03/29/01)

• Unemployment level declined for 8th consecutive year (03/28/01)
• Size of workplaces and cost of bonuses (03/27/01)
• Poverty rate still higher for working women (03/26/01)
• Lowest absence rate in farm jobs (03/23/01)
• Consumer prices rise 0.3 percent in February (03/22/01)

• Reasons for working part time (03/21/01)
• Number, rate of working poor fell in 1999 (03/20/01)
• Producer prices up slightly in February (03/19/01)
• Prices of goods from Canada fall in February (03/16/01)
• Less multiple jobholding last year (03/15/01)

• Shorter unemployment spells in 2000 (03/14/01)
• Taxing jobs: tax examiners, revenue agents, and collectors (03/13/01)
• Job losses continue in manufacturing (03/12/01)
• Fastest productivity growth ever in durable goods manufacturing last year (03/09/01)
• Majority of private-industry employees work in small establishments (03/08/01)

• Fourth-quarter productivity growth in factories revised upward (03/07/01)
• Highest unemployment rate in 2000: Alaska (03/06/01)
• Wild jobs: working in zoos and aquariums (03/05/01)
• Virginia had lowest unemployment rate in 2000 (03/02/01)
• Wages in sports all over the ballpark (03/01/01)

February 2001 

• Average unemployment down for most States in 2000 (02/26/01)

• Extended mass layoffs higher in fourth quarter 2000 (02/23/01)
• Extended mass layoffs idle 1.1 million in 2000 (02/28/01)
• Surge in demand for troubleshooters (02/27/01)
• Average unemployment down for most States in 2000 (02/26/01)
• Extended mass layoffs higher in fourth quarter 2000 (02/23/01)

• Consumer prices increase 0.6 percent in January (02/22/01)
• Fitness, wellness benefits moderately prevalent for State, local government workers (02/21/01)
• Producer prices up in January (02/20/01)
• Import prices fall again (02/16/01)
• More workers involved in work stoppages in 2000 (02/15/01)

• Finance industry led the way in earnings in 1990s (02/14/01)
• Unit labor costs accelerate in fourth quarter (02/13/01)
• Increase in work stoppages in 2000 (02/12/01)
• Stock compensation an old story (02/09/01)
• Strong productivity growth in 2000 (02/08/01)

• Managed care more common among State and local government employees (02/07/01)
• Insect bites, stings cause thousands of workplace injuries (02/06/01)
• Unemployment rate rises in January (02/05/01)
• More mass layoffs in 2000 (02/02/01)
• Government workers more likely to be union members (02/01/01)

January 2001

• Federal government biggest job loser in 1990s (01/31/01)

• Wages, benefit costs for State and local government workers both rise 0.8 percent (01/30/01)
• How seven pluses and a zero make a small minus for working hours (01/29/01)
• Employment costs increase 4.4 percent over the year (01/26/01)
• Animal attacks and on-the-job fatalities (01/25/01)
• Services fueled 1990s job growth (01/24/01)

• Union membership by occupation in 2000 (01/23/01)
• Life insurance benefits keep pace with wages (01/22/01)
• Gender gap in unionization closing (01/19/01)
• Consumer prices up 0.2 percent in December (01/18/01)
• Shorter work stoppages in 1999 (01/17/01)

• Producer prices hold steady in December (01/16/01)
• Imported petroleum prices drop in December (01/12/01)
• Government and financial industry workers use Internet most (01/11/01)
• Alternative approaches to CPI aggregation (01/10/01)
• Internet use highest for most educated (01/09/01)

• Private-sector employment up modestly in December (01/08/01)
• Most likely to be online: 14- to 17-year-olds  (01/05/01)
• Librarians in 2008—more in business settings (01/04/01)
• Employment growth in Mexico (01/03/01)
• Consumers spend more in all categories in 1999 (01/02/01)