RELEASED TODAY:
CPI -- The CPI-U rose 0.1 percent in December, on a seasonally adjusted basis, following increases of 0.2 percent in each of the preceding 2 months. The food index was unchanged in December, after advancing 0.1 percent in November. ... The energy index, which was unchanged in November, fell 1.4 percent in December. ... Excluding food and energy, the CPI-U increased 0.3 percent in December, following increases of 0.2 percent in each of the preceding four months. Three-fourths of the December rise in the index for all items less food and energy was accounted for by a 18.8 percent rise in the index for cigarettes, reflecting the pass-through to retail of the 45-cents-a pack wholesale price increase announced by major tobacco companies in late November. ...
REAL EARNINGS -- Real earnings increased by 0.5 percent from November to December after seasonal adjustment. This gain was due to a 0.4 percent increase in average hourly earnings and a 0.3 percent rise in average weekly hours. The earnings increase was slightly offset by a 0.2 percent increase in the CPI-W. ... Over the year, real average weekly earnings grew by 1.8 percent. ...
__Labor Secretary Herman asks the Labor Department inspector general to investigate the BLS' second premature release of time-sensitive data in less than three months. Herman says in a statement she is "deeply troubled and dismayed" by the posting of the producer price index on the BLS Web site one day before schedule. ... The inadvertent posting follows a Nov. 5 release of some supplemental employment data a day before the schedule. "This is clearly unacceptable, and I have asked BLS Commissioner Katharine Abraham for a full report," Herman says. ... At a press briefing, Abraham says a computer programming error caused the premature release of the PPI. ... BLS Associate Commissioner Lois Orr said the data were mistakenly released at 1 p.m. The bureau discovered the error roughly an hour later, and then withdrew the price measure from its Web site. When BLS discovered that between 40 and 50 people had retrieved the information, the agency decided to release the PPI at 5 p.m. that evening. BLS Commissioner Abraham said it may be impossible to determine who retrieved the PPI from the Web site early and what, if any, benefit they accrued. ... (Daniel J. Roy in Daily Labor Report, page AA1;text of the statement of Abraham, page E-20). __Secretary Alexis Herman, calling Tuesday's inadvertent release of December's producer price index "clearly unacceptable," said she was "deeply troubled and dismayed that there has been another early release of time sensitive BLS data." ... "Needless to say, the Bureau is both embarrassed and concerned by these incidents," Abraham said. "We will do everything possible to see that they do not recur, as the integrity of the data we produce is our highest priority." ... Tuesday's gaffe didn't have the same impact on markets as did the November incident. But nonetheless, some bond traders apparently did get a leg up on their competition. The blunder also rattled other Wall Street watchers and has been an increasing source of concern among economists who use government economic indicators to analyze the state of the U.S. economy (Alejandro Bodipo-Memba in Wall Street Journal, page A6).
Independent contractors tend to prefer their employment arrangements to a traditional job, enjoy lengthy job tenures and high job satisfaction, and receive, on average, higher compensation than traditional workers, according to an article in the November 1998 "Monthly Labor Review" by BLS economist Sharon R. Cohaney. The article, entitled "Workers in Alternative Employment Arrangements: A Second Look" is based upon February 1997 data obtained from the Current Population Survey. It revealed that about one in 10 workers, or 12.6 million people, worked in one of the four alternative employment arrangements. ... (Victoria Roberts in Daily Labor Report, page A-2; article reprint, page E-1).
DUE OUT TOMORROW: U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes -- December 1998