BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1999
"What you see isn't always what you can get," said an article in Monday's "Washington Business" section of the Washington Post. ... The author says there should options when information is available electronically. Trouble is, the formats that Webmasters choose for the data they display rules many of them out. Often the user can't do much more than read information on the screen. ... Web pages display tables created in hypertext markup language (HTML) and often that means trouble. ... However, many agencies, including the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, make their information available both in Acrobat format or HTML and in easy-to-manipulate spreadsheet or database formats. But others are in effect limiting access to the data by providing much of it solely in Acrobat. And some are scanning in "legacy" documents -- the new euphemism for paper -- as images without going on to the further step of optical character recognition. These documents are electronic, but can only be viewed; neither search nor capture features are available. ...
Employer demand for this year's spring college graduates is down a bit from last year's frenzied scramble, colleges suggest. In the 1997-98 school year, many talent-hungry companies recruited in fall and spring. But this year, many recruiters met their staffing goals in the fall and aren't coming back this spring as they did last year, schools say. ... Budding graduates are getting salary offers up to 8.6 percent over September offers, but the spring increases aren't as "spectacular" as last year's, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (Wall Street Journal, page A-1).
Business at U.S. companies outside of manufacturing expanded in March for the third month in a row, suggesting the economy entered the second quarter on a strong footing. The National Association of Purchasing Management's index of nonmanufacturing business rose to 62.5 last month from 57 in February (USA Today, page 1B).
The overall median salary increase for mid-level administrative-professional positions at colleges and universities was 3.8 percent in the 1998-99 period, according to a survey of higher education institutions. Conducted by the College and University Personnel Association, the survey found that the median salary increase was highest--4.8 percent--at "other" institutions. This designation includes system offices and specialized institutions. ... The median salary increase was 4.3 percent at private institutions and 3.7 percent at public institutions, according to the survey. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A-3).
E-mail is convenient and offers abundant advantages, but the spread of its use by employees presents employers with both subtle and glaring problems. Legal issues grab the headlines when e-mail assumed to be private reveals discriminatory messages or exposes compromises to company trade secrets. Company theft of a different sort robs employees of precious time when just dealing with the volume of received e-mail messages crowds out more important activities. And as e-mail contact with customers grows more common, employees' messages do not always express a tone that represents companies well. ... Employees often don't know who should get copies of e-mail, how fast they must respond, and what to put in a subject line. Legal issues are a big reason experts say guidance is needed. The most immediate concern for many companies is e-mail taking up too much of the computer system's space and employees' time. ... (Daily Labor Report, page B-1).