The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has made available the April 1997 edition of its Handbook of Methods, in both HTML and Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format. This 202 page book details the methodology by which BLS "obtains and prepares the economic data it publishes," providing the structural underpinning for such data topics as employment and unemployment, compensation and working conditions,...
According to January 2000 Mass Layoffs Report from the BLS, there were "1,936 mass layoff actions by employers as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits" during the first month of the year 2000. Thirty-eight percent all mass layoff events were in manufacturing industries, as were 44 percent of all claims filed.
Thirteen percent of all American waged and salaried workers, or 16.5 million workers, were members of unions in 1999, reports the BLS. Government workers are four times as likely to be union members, and those employed by local governments, such as fire fighters and police officers, the most unionized, have 42.9 percent rate of membership.