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

Archived articles from The Editor's Desk
—Chronological archives: 2003

December 2003

• Productivity up in most of largest retail trade industries (12/31/2003)

• Mass layoffs by industry sector, November 2003 (12/30/2003)
• Unemployment during 2002 by race, Hispanic ethnicity, and sex (12/29/2003)
• Older volunteers put in most hours (12/24/2003)
• Percent of men and women that worked during 2002 (12/23/2003)
• Workplace injuries by industry, 2002 (12/22/2003)

• Increase in volunteering (12/19/2003)
• Real average weekly earnings higher in November (12/18/2003)
• CPI falls in November (12/17/2003)
• Nursing animals to health (12/16/2003)
• PPI down in November (12/15/2003)

• Import prices in November (12/12/2003)
• Variation in workers paid Federal minimum wage by region (12/11/2003)
• Employment-population ratios of women in 12 countries (12/10/2003)
• Unemployment rate in November (12/09/2003)
• Manufacturing employment in November (12/08/2003)

• Spending on entertainment in 2002 (12/05/2003)
• Productivity growth in third quarter higher than originally reported (12/04/2003)
• Service jobs most likely to pay minimum wage (12/03/2003)
• Lowest paying occupations in 2002 (12/02/2003)
• Mass-layoff initial claims lower in October 2003 (12/01/2003)

November 2003

• Wages and benefits in State and local government, September 2003 (11/28/2003)
• Gross job gains and losses in the first quarter (11/26/2003)
• Largest rise in consumer spending in 2002: health care (11/25/2003)

• Highest paying occupations in 2002 (11/24/2003)
• Extended mass layoffs down in third quarter (11/21/2003)
• Real earnings up in October (11/20/2003)
• CPI unchanged in October (11/19/2003)
• Value of quality changes averages $82.96 in 2004 model-year cars (11/18/2003)

• Beef, vehicle prices contribute to October PPI gain (11/17/2003)
• Higher agricultural export prices in October (11/14/2003)
• Factory output and productivity higher in third quarter (11/13/2003)
• Unemployment rate 6 percent in October (11/12/2003)
• Payroll employment rises again in October (11/10/2003)

• Productivity climbs in third quarter (11/07/2003)
• Counties with fastest growing pay, first quarter 2003 (11/06/2003)
• Growth in compensation costs for State and local government workers during the year ended September 2003 (11/05/2003)
• Travel expenditures by age (11/04/2003)
• Counties with fastest growing employment, March 2003 (11/03/2003)

October 2003

• Employment costs up 1.0 percent from June to September (10/31/2003)
• Earnings and union status (10/30/2003)

• Women's earnings in professional specialty occupations (10/29/2003)
• Changes in spending patterns among Hispanics (10/28/2003)
• Hours of volunteer work (10/2703)
• Mass layoffs in September 2003 (10/24/2003)
• Earnings by educational attainment and sex, 1979 and 2002 (10/23/2003)

• Differences in women's and men's earnings by race and Hispanic origin (10/22/2003)
• Earnings and occupation: third quarter of 2003 (10/21/2003)
• Real earnings decline in September (10/20/2003)
• Consumer prices up 0.3 percent in September (10/17/2003)
• Women's earnings 78 percent of men's in 2002 (10/16/2003)

• Labor force participation during recent labor market downturns (10/15/2003)
• Producer prices advance in September (10/14/2003)
• Oil import prices down in September (10/10/2003)
• Productivity growth in information-sector industries (10/09/2003)
• Supply, demand, and consumer gasoline prices (10/08/2003)

• Payroll employment in September 2003 (10/07/2003)
• Unemployment rates in September (10/06/2003)
• Retirement plans in 2003 (10/03/2003)
• Fatal occupational injuries by industry, 2002 (10/02/2003)
• New statistics on business employment dynamics (10/01/2003)

September 2003

• Health care plans in 2003 (09/30/2003)
• Average foreign compensation stays in line with U.S. factories (09/29/2003)
• Mass layoffs in August (09/26/2003)
• Employee contributions for medical insurance in 2003 (09/25/2003)

• Most frequent types of work-related fatalities in 2002 (09/24/2003)
• Productivity up in just over half of industries in 2001 (09/23/2003)
• Fatal work injuries count lower in 2002 (09/22/2003)
• Consumer prices increase 0.3 percent in August (09/17/2003)
• Manufacturing unit labor costs lower in 2002 in U.S., Japan, Taiwan (09/16/2003)

• Producer prices rise again in August (09/15/2003)
• Oil import prices advance in August (09/12/2003)
• Sweden, Korea had largest factory productivity gains last year (09/11/2003)
• Extended mass layoffs and the 9/11 attacks (09/10/2003)
• Unemployment about unchanged in August (09/09/2003)

• Hours, earnings, and payrolls in August (09/08/2003)
• Upward revision of second quarter 2003 productivity growth (09/05/2003)
• Substantial layoffs in 2002 (09/04/2003)
• July mass layoff events by industry sector (09/03/2003)
• New and emerging occupations by industry, 2000 (09/02/2003)

August 2003

• Mass layoffs in July (08/29/2003)

• Employee retirement and savings benefits higher for union workers (08/28/2003)
• Employee benefits in June 2003 (08/27/2003)
• Retirees by region (08/26/2003)
• Minimum wage workers in 2002 (08/25/2003)
• Metro areas with highest percentages of high-tech workers (08/22/2003)

• Extended mass layoffs in second quarter (08/21/2003)
• Employment and wages in elementary and secondary schools (08/20/2003)
• Manufacturing productivity in the second quarter (08/19/2003)
• Consumer prices up 0.2 percent in July (08/18/2003)
• Producer prices edged up in July (08/15/2003)

• Import prices in July (08/14/2003)
• Growth in wages and salaries by region over the year (08/13/2003)
• Lowest July labor force participation rate for youth since 1966 (08/12/2003)
• Fewer youths in summer work (08/11/2003)
• Productivity advances in second quarter (08/08/2003)

• Retirement expenditures for Whites, Blacks, and persons of Hispanic origin (08/07/2003)
• Benefit costs for State and local government workers jump over the year (08/06/2003)
• Unemployment duration as of July 2003 (08/05/2003)
• Payroll employment in July (08/04/2003)
• Employment costs up 0.8 percent from March to June (08/01/2003)

July 2003

• Composition of new information supersector (07/31/2003)
• GDP per employed person in 10 countries, 2002 (07/30/2003)

• June 2003 mass layoffs by region (07/29/2003)
• Earnings higher in larger establishments (07/28/2003)
• Mass layoffs in June (07/25/2003)
• Unemployment and marital status of women with young children in 2002 (07/24/2003)
• Occupational earnings in July 2002 (07/23/2003)

• Earnings highest in Middle Atlantic division (07/22/2003)
• Variation in worker earnings, July 2002 (07/21/2003)
• Earnings and educational attainment: second quarter of 2003 (07/18/2003)
• Consumer prices up in June (07/17/2003)
• Wage gains through the fourth quarter of 2002 (07/16/2003)

• Unemployment of parents with children under 18 (07/15/2003)
• Producer prices up in June (07/14/2003)
• Import prices rise in June (07/11/2003)
• Families and unemployment, 2002 (07/10/2003)
• Out-of-pocket medical spending: fee-for-service vs. HMO coverage (07/09/2003)

• Payroll employment in June (07/08/2003)
• Unemployment rate up in June (07/07/2003)
• Farm and service workers have highest poverty rates (07/03/2003)
• Entertainment expenditures, 2000 (07/02/2003)
• Working poor and education in 2001 (07/01/2003)

June 2003

• Unemployment rate 29.8 percent among recent dropouts (06/30/2003)

• Mass layoffs in May (06/27/2003)
• 2002 high school graduates and college enrollment (06/26/2003)
• Rate of working poor rises in 2001 (06/25/2003)
• Spending on necessities, 2000 (06/24/2003)
• Vehicle acquisition by age (06/23/2003)

• Real earnings in May (06/20/2003)
• Reasons for extended layoffs in first quarter 2003 (06/19/2003)
• Consumer prices unchanged in May (06/18/2003)
• Spending on travel (06/17/2003)
• Producer prices decline again in May (06/16/2003)

• Import prices drop, export prices rise in May (06/13/2003)
• Average compensation $22.37 per hour in private industry in March (06/12/2003)
• More changes to Current Employment Statistics (06/11/2003)
• Labor force, employment, and unemployment in May (06/10/2003)
• New classifications of payroll employment (06/09/2003)

• When relative wages depend on where you are (06/06/2003)
• First-quarter productivity growth revised upward (06/05/2003)
• Occupational variation in computer use (06/04/2003)
• Do occupational wages vary much by location? (06/03/2003)
• Larger rise in spending on housing in 2001 (06/02/2003)

May 2003

• Mass layoffs in April (05/30/2003)

• Assessing the 1988-2000 employment growth projections (05/29/2003)
• Accuracy of growth projections for health care occupations (05/28/2003)
• Lump-sum retirement (05/27/2003)
• When the future becomes the past: 1988-2000 projections for large occupations (05/23/2003)
• Spending on food-at home and away (05/22/2003)

• Changes in import prices vary by locality of origin (05/21/2003)
• Real earnings in April (05/20/2003)
• Consumer prices fall 0.3 percent from March to April (05/19/2003)
• Producer prices down sharply in April (05/16/2003)
• Import prices drop in April (05/15/2003)

• Food inflation more palatable in 2002 (05/14/2003)
• Productivity jump for nonfinancial corporations in 2002 (05/13/2003)
• Compensation growth most rapid in Midwest over the year (05/12/2003)
• Energy prices up and down in recent years (05/09/2003)
• Rise in manufacturing productivity in first quarter (05/08/2003)

• Benefit, wage costs for State and local government workers in first quarter of 2003 (05/07/2003)
• Payroll employment in April (05/06/2003)
• Employment, unemployment up in April (05/05/2003)
• Productivity up in first quarter (05/02/2003)
• Mass layoffs in March (05/01/2003)

April 2003

• Employment costs rose 1.4 percent from December to March (04/30/2003)
• Regional variation in employment in 2001 (04/29/2003)

• Shelter inflation in 2002 (04/28/2003)
• Clothing prices fall again in 2002 (04/25/2003)
• Wage gains in the third quarter of 2002 (04/24/2003)
• Women's earnings up relative to men's in 2002 (04/23/2003)
• Real earnings in March (04/22/2003)

• Extended mass layoffs in 2002 (04/21/2003)
• Weekly earnings in the first quarter of 2003 (04/18/2003)
• Consumer prices up 0.3 percent in March (04/17/2003)
• Another rise in medical care inflation (04/16/2003)
• Biggest drop in consumer durables prices since 1930s (04/15/2003)

• Producer prices up again in March (04/14/2003)
• Import prices up modestly in March (04/11/2003)
• Fewer mass layoffs in 2002 (04/10/2003)
• First drop in multifactor productivity since 1991 (04/09/2003)
• Payrolls down in March (04/08/2003)

• Unemployment rate in March 2003 (04/07/2003)
• Longest work absences result from repetitive motion (04/04/2003)
• Employment gains in real estate in 2002 (04/03/2003)
• Sources of lost-worktime injuries and illnesses in 2001 (04/02/2003)
• Women's earnings up relative to men's in 2002 (04/01/2003)

March 2003

• Lost-worktime injuries by age (03/31/2003)

• Jobs with the most lost-time injuries (03/28/2003)
• Health services had biggest employment gain in 2002 (03/27/2003)
• Women's unemployment rate rose less than men's in 2002 (03/26/2003)
• Real average weekly earnings down in February (03/25/2003)
• Consumer prices in February (03/24/2003)

• First NAICS-based monthly State and area employment numbers (03/21/2003)
• Private-industry compensation averages $22.14 per hour in December (03/20/2003)
• All education levels affected by recent unemployment rise (03/19/2003)
• Length of work stoppages in 2002 (03/18/2003)
• Producer prices rise again in February (03/17/2003)

• Import prices up again in February (03/14/2003)
• Workers idled by work stoppages at historic low (03/13/2003)
• Fewer major work stoppages in 2002 (03/12/2003)
• Unemployment in February 2003 (03/11/2003)
• Fall in payroll employment in February (03/10/2003)

• Upward revision of fourth-quarter productivity growth (03/07/2003)
• Advantages from an associate degree (03/06/2003)
• Drops in employment-population ratios in most States (03/05/2003)
• Highest unemployment rate in 2002: Alaska (03/04/2003)
• South Dakota had lowest unemployment rate in 2002 (03/03/2003)

February 2003

• Age and unionization rates, 2002 (02/28/2003)
• Productivity declines in Canadian, Japanese, and U.S. factories in 2001 (02/27/2003)
• Union membership in private industry, 2002 (02/26/2003)

• Most doctoral grads work outside of academia (02/25/2003)
• Consumer prices in January (02/24/2003)
• Producer prices increase in January (02/21/2003)
• Productivity growth slower in two-thirds of newly measured service industries (02/20/2003)
• Rapid productivity growth in prepackaged software industry (02/19/2003)

• Import prices advance in January (02/14/2003)
• Contributions to wholesale-trade productivity growth (02/13/2003)
• Drop in unit labor costs in manufacturing last year (02/12/2003)
• Rise in payroll employment in January (02/11/2003)
• Jobless rate drops to 5.7 percent in January 2003 (02/10/2003)

• Productivity down in fourth quarter (02/07/2003)
• Most 16- to 18-year-old students work in school year and summer (02/06/2003)
• Common occupations for 16-year-olds: cashiers and cooks (02/05/2003)
• Wages and salaries increase fastest in Midwest over the year (02/04/2003)
• Wages and benefit costs for State and local government workers at end of 2002 (02/03/2003)

January 2003

• Employment costs advanced 0.7 percent from September to December (01/31/2003)

• Reasons for unemployment in 2002 (01/30/2003)
• Part-time for economic reasons (01/29/2003)
• Farm jobs and managerial positions have lowest absence rate (01/28/2003)
• Unemployment spells lengthened in 2002 (01/27/2003)
• Largest establishments most common in education and health services, manufacturing (01/24/2003)

• Moonlighting across the U.S. (01/23/2003)
• Small establishments employ majority of private industry workers (01/22/2003)
• Weekly earnings in the fourth quarter (01/21/2003)
• Consumer prices in December (01/17/2003)
• Producer prices unchanged in December (01/16/2003)

• Import prices up in December (01/15/2003)
• Unemployment rate unchanged in December (01/14/2003)
• Payroll employment down in December (01/13/2003)
• Consumer-related jobs most important to farming and nondurables among goods producers (01/10/2003)
• Consumer spending and job growth (01/09/2003)

• Wage gains in the second quarter of 2002 (01/08/2003)
• Most cases of repeated-trauma disorder are in manufacturing (01/07/2003)
• ECI and Medicare payments (01/06/2003)
• Incidence of injuries with days away from work down again in 2001 (01/03/2003)
• Organizations for which volunteers work (01/02/2003)