Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 3, 1993 TAG: 9304030096
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
U.S. JOB MARKET GOING NOWHERE
The outlook turned gloomier Friday for Americans seeking work: Jobs are growing at the slowest rate for a recovery since World War II, the Labor Department confirmed.The nation's unemployment rate remained at 7 percent in March - unchanged from February - because economic growth failed to increase the size of the work force. The number of jobs actually fell 22,000 in March, but the drop was too small to affect the rate.
With a work force of 109 million, the economy should be creating 350,000 additional jobs each month to match the average of previous expansions. But the nation has been adding just 84,000 new jobs a month during the past year, the worst performance among the nine post-recession expansions in the past 50 years.
"There's never been anything like it," said Allen Sinai, chief economist for The Boston Co. Economic Advisers.
"The lesson of the times is that those with jobs are earning more, but they're working harder; and those without jobs are finding it very tough to get one," he added. "To get a job and keep it, people are going to have be as educated, skilled and productive as possible. It's the new work ethic."
Economists blamed the weak March job figures in part on bad weather, which depressed employment in the construction and retail industries, and on soft demand for U.S. goods in recession-plagued Japan and Germany, which hurt factory employment.
But they also acknowledged that job growth will be sluggish for a long time, even if the economy picks up more steam.
Low inflation and increased global competition are forcing companies to hold down their costs, and one of the most effective ways to do that is by reducing or holding the line on full-time payrolls.
With labor costs driven up in large measure by soaring increases in health care and other benefits, employers are finding it cheaper to increase production by using labor-saving technology, assigning their existing workers more overtime or replacing permanent workers with part-timers and temporary employees who do not get benefits.
Growing public concern about this trend has led to a decline in consumer confidence about the course of the economy, an important indicator of future spending patterns.
The 22,000 drop in payroll jobs last month came on the heels of an exceptionally strong job gain of 367,000 in February, but Labor Department officials said most of the February jobs were part time and not indicative of any new underlying strength in the economy.
The recovery appears solid, economists said, but the latest job figures bolstered other recent indicators that growth is slowing from a rate of nearly 5 percent in the last three months of 1992 to between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent.