Labor month in review
The
October Review
Fatal injuries at work raised by 9/11 attacks
Tenure gap narrows
Plant closings up in 2001
Average annual pay up 2.5 percent
Multifactor
productivity rises again in manufacturing
Economic growth, productivity, and the contribution of information, communications, and other new technologies to them continue to be important questions. The lead article investigates new technology and growth (leaving productivity questions to the Pr閏is section). Tarek M. Harchaoui, Faouzi Tarkhani, Chris Jackson, and Philip Armstrong from Statistics Canada carefully analyze the resurgence of output growth and multifactor productivity in their country and the United States. These trends reflect, they conclude, the impact of both increasing capital formation and a shift within that category toward high-tech assets such as information and communication technologies.
The two remaining articles discuss medical care-related topics from rather different perspectives. Allan P. Blostin looks at how often and to what specific extent health care benefit plans cover individuals for preventive care expenses. His primary finding is that while such measures as cancer screening, mammograms, smoking cessation programs, and other preventive measures are often paid for by health care plans, they are relatively rarely included specifically in plan documentations and provision summaries. Thus, these tests are often covered under the more flexible general categories as "physical exams" and "diagnostic procedures."
Albert E. Schwenk and William J. Wiatrowski describe the methods by which the Employer Cost Index (ECI) is used to adjust payments to health care providers under 6 out of 15 categories of Medicare coverage. Used in conjunction with Producer Price Index data, and other input costs, the ECI affects more than $140 billion dollars in annual reimbursements.
Fatal injuries at work raised by 9/11 attacks
A total of 8,786 fatal work injuries were reported in 2001, including fatalities related to the September 11th terrorist attacks. A total of 2,886 work-related fatalities resulted from the events of September 11th. The events of that day killed persons from a wide range of backgrounds梛anitors to managers, native and foreign-born workers, and the young and the old梬ho were at work in the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, were on business travel or were crew aboard the commercial airliners that crashed in Pennsylvania, New York City, and Virginia, or were involved in rescue duties.
Excluding the fatalities on September 11th, the overall workplace fatality count of 5,900 in 2001 was down slightly (less than 1 percent) from 2000. Total employment also declined slightly in 2001. As a result, the occupational fatality rate, 4.3 fatalities per 100,000 employed, was the same as it had been in 2000. See "National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2001," news release USDL 02�1.
The median number of years that wage and salary workers had been with their current employer was 3.7 years in January 2002. Employee tenure was somewhat higher for men than for women, but the gap was smaller than it was in the 1980s. Median tenure (the point at which half of the workers had more tenure and half had less tenure) was 3.9 years for men and 3.4 years for women in January 2002. Median tenure has been about one-half year higher for men than for women since 1996, compared with a difference of about one full year in prior survey years. The survey measures how long workers had been with their current employer, not how long they will stay with their employer. See "Employee Tenure in 2002," news release USDL 02�1.
Of the 8,352 extended mass layoff events in 2001, 15 percent resulted in permanent closure of the worksite. A total of 379,790 workers were affected by these permanent worksite closures. Compared with the experience in 2000, layoff events in which the worksite closed increased by 61 percent, and the number of workers involved more than doubled.
Manufacturing accounted for 52 percent of permanent closures in 2001. These closures occurred mostly in computer and electronic products manufacturing, apparel, and primary metals manufacturing. Retail trade accounted for 15 percent of closures, largely in general merchandise stores and in building materials and garden supply stores. Extended mass layoffs last more than 30 days and involve 50 or more individuals from a single establishment filing initial claims for unemployment insurance during a consecutive 5-week period. Additional information is available in "Extended Mass Layoffs in 2001," BLS Report 963.
Average annual pay up 2.5 percent
The average annual pay of U.S. workers rose by 2.5 percent in 2001. This compares with a 5.9-percent rise in 2000. The level of average annual pay for U.S. workers was $36,214 in 2001, up from $35,320 in 2000. The 2.5-percent pay hike was the third lowest in the 1991 to 2001 period, and was below 3 percent for the first time since 1994. These data are for all workers covered by State and Federal unemployment insurance programs. Data for 2001 are preliminary and subject to revision. See "Average Annual Pay by State and Industry, 2001," news release USDL 02�0.
Multifactor productivity rises again in manufacturing
Multifactor productivity梞easured as output per unit of combined inputs梤ose by 1.9 percent in manufacturing in 2000. This was down somewhat from the 2.6-percent increase in 1999. The multifactor productivity gain in 2000 was the result of a 2.5-percent advance in manufacturing output less a 0.7-percent increase in combined inputs. Growth in both output and combined inputs was the slowest since declines in 1991. Inputs of materials rose 0.9 percent in 2000, the slowest growth since 1987. Capital services continued to grow rapidly, posting a 3.8-percent advance. Hours at work declined for the third year in a row, falling 1.4 percent, the largest decline in factory hours since 1991.
Multifactor productivity is designed to measure the joint influences on economic growth of technological change, efficiency improvements, returns to scale, reallocation of resources, and other factors. Multifactor productivity, therefore, differs from the labor productivity (output per hour) measures that are published quarterly by BLS since it requires information on capital services and other data that are not available on a quarterly basis. Additional information is available in "Multifactor Productivity Trends in Manufacturing, 2000," news release USDL 02�9.
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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