STATE OF BUSINESS: Summer Breather

With the nation in a vacation mood last week, business also seemed to be taking a breather. The Federal Reserve Board reported that the industrial production index declined in June by 1% to 109 of the 1957 average, due primarily to the cut in steel production. This left the index two points lower than the high of 111 last January. But if production was off a bit, consumer buying in June ($18.7 billion) was a record for the month.

The number of people employed was also a June record—68,579,000—the Labor Department reported last week. But the greatest number of young summer job seekers in history sent unemployment soaring to 4,400,000, or 5.5% of the labor force. Of the 2,300,000 June increase in the labor force, all but 100,000 were boys and girls 14 to 19 years of age.