Wholesale Price Increase Slows To 0.7 Percent: Wholesale Prices Rise 0.7%; Slowdown Brings I
Wholesale prices rose 0.7 percent in May, down sharply from the 1.3 percent surge in April, the Labor Department reported yesterday. But government economists found little solace in the apparent slowdown.</br></br>The department also reported that the May unemployment rate edged up from G.O to 6.1 percent, an increase economists say is insignificant. Total employment rose by 310,000, but the overall labor force rose even more.</br></br>YesterdayÛªs reports are likely to have little effect on the Carter administrationÛªs economic policies, which have shifted in recent months from a fight against unemployment to an attack on inflation.</br></br>But some top administration economists fear that despite the current surge in prices, economic growth could slow substantially in the months ahead and that unemployment could start rising by next winter.</br></br>The entire slowdown in the wholesale price index resulted from a reduction in the rate of increase in food prices. They rose 0.5 percent in May, compared to 1.9 percent in April.