REARVIEW

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: MARCH 2002
Both payroll employment and the unemployment rate were little changed in March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported in April. Manufacturing and construction each lost nearly 40,000 jobs, but services employment grew substantially. Both the manufacturing workweek and overtime hours rose over the month.

The number of unemployed persons (8.1 million) and the unemployment rate (5.7 percent) were little changed in March. The jobless rate has been within two-tenths of a percentage point of 5.6 percent since October 2001.

AMERICANS DIVIDED ON GLOBAL WARMING

PRINCETON, N.J. — 2002 has brought conflicting signs about whether the climate-change issue is as grave as some believe. First, an Antarctic ice shelf the size of Rhode Island melted to pieces in February following unusually warm regional temperatures. Then in March, a study released in the journal Science concluded that the current global warm spell could just be part of the Earth’s natural temperature cycles.

By its own admission, the public is not well positioned to make much sense of all this. In a recent Gallup poll, only 17 percent of Americans say they understand the issue of global warming “very well.” Another 52 percent say they understand it “fairly well” while about one-third say “not very well” or “not at all.”

But Americans do have opinions about the global warming problem, and these have been fairly consistent in recent years. The survey evidence suggests that the public is divided roughly into thirds on the issue, with one-third viewing it as a very serious problem, one-third viewing it as a moderate problem, and one-third only mildly concerned or discounting the problem altogether. When asked how much they worry about the “the greenhouse effect or global warming,” just under a third of Americans, 29 percent, say they worry a great deal about it; another 29 percent worry a fair amount, while 40 percent worry only a little or not at all. — Source: The Gallup Research Service

SURVEY SAYS. . .
Each week on www.pctonline.com, PCT surveys its readers about issues facing the pest control industry today. Here are some recent results about topics affecting you and your company. Be sure to stop by at www.pctonline.com weekly to participate in the weekly poll!

Q: Have you ever tried selling your services via telemarketing?
 YES: 29 percent
 NO: 71 percent

Q: Has your company been sued by a customer in the last 12 months?
 YES: 11 percent
 NO: 89 percent