COMPARATIVE TRENDS IN PRODUCTIVITY AND REAL HOURLY EARNINGS,1957-1962 Average Annual Rates of Change DEFICIENT RATE OF GROWTH IN DEFICIENCIES IN WAGES AND SALARIES ARE LARGE SHARE OF DEFICIENCIES IN TOTAL CONSUMER INCOMES BEFORE TAXES DURING CURRENT ECONOMIC UPTURN, PROFITS, AND INVESTMENT IN SOME CASES, OUTRUN WAGES-BASIC TO CONSUMPTION Data: Federal Trade Commission-Securities and Exchange Commission. 2/ Data: U.S. Dept. of Commerce and Securities and Exchange Commission; seasonally adjusted. 3 Average hourly earnings of production workers. Data: U.S. Dept. of Labor. CHART 26 FEDERAL STATISTICS USERS' CONFERENCE The Federal Statistics Users' Conference is composed of organizations from all sectors of the economy. Business, farm, labor, and nonprofit research grups are all represented in the conference. As might be expected, members of the Federal Statistics Users' Conference have diverse views about the substance of the Economic Report. For this reason, FSUC is not in a position to be of help to the committee in evaluating this aspect of either the 1964 Economic Report of the President or the report of his Council of Economic Advisers. While members of FSUC have a diversity of interests and diverse views on economic policies, we are joined together because we have a common interest in adequate statistical information from Federal sources. Business, farm, labor, and nonprofit research organizations all draw from the common storehouse of Federal statistics. The President and his Council of Economic Advisers also draw from this common source of information. And so does the Congress in dealing with legislative policy matters. OFFICE OF BUSINESS ECONOMICS The President's Economic Report relies in large part upon the work of the Office of Business Economics which is responsible for developing and publishing the statistical compilations known as the national economic accounts. The national economic accounts are put together by a relatively small group of professionals who bring together in a single framework a wide variety of materials from different sources and of different qualities. Last year we warned of possible deterioration in the quality of this Office's output and its staff unless remedial action was soon taken to utilize its talents more effectively. We are glad to note that OBE is being given some challenging new tasks to do-tasks which are well within the professional competence of the staff and which reflect new confidence in the work of OBE and new respect for its ability as the prime source of economic analysis for the Department of Commerce. The recent transfers of certain activities involving regional economic analysis from Business and Defense Services Administration and Area Redevelopment Administration to the Office of Business Economics are a mark of this new attitude toward OBE. OBE's staff will need to be strengthened if it is to do the job it can do. At the present, too much depends upon too few. For example, the balance-of-payments statistics for the Nation depend very largely upon the health, leave status, and job attachment of two individuals. Were these two professionals to be lured away to greener pastures, the balance-of-payments statistics would be seriously impaired. And this is not an isolated case. OBE is still operating at full stretch in too many places. |