November/December 2003, Vol. 126, Nos. 11 & 12
Labor month in review
The November-December
Review
Information sector productivity
Employment dynamics
Fastest growing counties
Consumer spending in 2002
In this volume, we have combined the November and December issues of the Review, in part to speed delivery and in part to spread out the materials available. For readers who track the Bureau’s data through the Current Labor Statistics tables, please note that the November tables are presented in their entirety on pages 25 through 91 and only those tables that would have changed in December—the tables containing monthly data—have been produced in the supplementary section on pages 92 though 115.
In the lead article, Jared Bernstein and Maury Gittleman take advantage of the uniquely rich National Compen-sation Survey (NCS) data to examine the reasons low-wage workers receive their low pay. The NCS data are particularly suited for this task because they include information about the characteristics of a specific job that affect pay-setting for that position: knowledge required, complexity, scope, guidance received, physical demands, and so on. Analysis of these "leveling factors" shows that low-wage work is, in fact, concentrated in jobs that have low skill content. However, these factors don’t explain everything: an independent variable marking jobs as "low-skilled" has significant explanatory power after controlling for specific skill content. Whether that is a result of an additional, and perhaps arbitrary, penalty imposed on low skill jobs or whether low skill demands and the characteristics of low-wage workers interact in a way that actually results in lower productivity cannot be determined by the model.
Low-wage work is just one of the problems facing the working poor, according to the article by Abraham T. Mosisa. Of the 3-1/2 million full-time workers who lived in families with incomes below the poverty line in 2001, slightly more than two-thirds cited low earnings, either alone or in conjunction with unemployment or involuntary part-time work, as part of their labor market problems.
James Campbell has contributed a report on multiple jobholding in 2002 on a State-by-State basis. Multiple job-holding rates were lower than they had been a year earlier in 31 States, were unchanged in 6, and higher in 13 States and the District of Columbia.
Information sector productivity
Between 1987 and 2001, productivity (as measured by output per hour) grew in six of the seven industries in the information sector for which BLS has measures. Output per hour rose fastest, 15.7 percent per year, among software publishers. Productivity growth in the telecommunications industries also was strong, with increases of 9.9 percent per year posted by the wireless telecommunications industry and 6.2 percent per year by the wired telecommunications industry. The only industry among the seven with a decline in productivity from 1987 to 2001 was cable and other subscription programming. For more information, see news release USDL 03–490, "Productivity and Costs by Industry, 2001."
New quarterly data on business employment dynamics have been issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These data quantify the sizable number of jobs that appear and disappear in the U.S. economy each quarter. Expanding establishments gained 6.1 million jobs in the quarter, while opening establishments accounted for a gain of 1.6 million jobs. Contracting establishments lost 6.2 million jobs, while closing establishments accounted for a loss of 1.6 million jobs. Expanding and contracting establishments thus accounted for most jobs gained and lost. These first business employment dynamics data were issued in news release USDL 03–521, "New Quarterly Data on Business Employment Dynamics From BLS."
In March 2003, Placer County in California had the biggest over-the-year percentage increase in employment among the largest counties. Employment in Placer County, California, located near Sacramento, grew by 4.9 percent from March 2002 to March 2003. It was followed by the counties of Lee, Florida, and St. Charles, Missouri (4.6 percent each), Rutherford, Tennessee (4.5 percent), and Pinellas, Florida (4.3 percent). In the Nation as a whole, employment fell by 0.3 percent between March 2002 and March 2003.
The biggest absolute gains in over-the-year employment were recorded in the counties of Clark, Nevada (27,500), San Diego, California (20,900), Riverside, California (20,400), and Maricopa, Arizona, and Pinellas, Florida, (18,500 each). For more data, see news release USDL 03–654, "County Employment and Wages: First Quarter 2003."
Average annual expenditures per consumer unit rose 2.9 percent in 2002, more than the 1.6-percent annual average rise in the Consumer Price Index. Among the major components of spending, expenditures on health care showed the largest increase in 2002, rising 7.7 percent. Spending on entertainment and on personal insurance and pensions also increased more than the average, rising 6.5 and 4.3 percent, respectively.
Spending on food, housing, transportation, and apparel and services all rose less than the overall average; apparel and service showed the smallest increase, 0.3 percent. For more information, see news release USDL 03–759, "Consumer Expenditures in 2002."
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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