Jump in Prices

Prices, which have been slowly edging up, have taken a sudden jump. The Labor Department reported last week that its cost-of-living index rose nearly half a point to 127.3 of the 1947-49 average--the biggest monthly jump since April, and the ninth rise in the past ten months. The rise took place not only in the cost of such non-durables as food, transportation, personal and medical care and clothing but --for the first time in 1960--in durable commodities as well.

The earnings of factory workers kept pace with the living cost, also hit new records in October. They rose to $81.50 weekly, up 50-c- from September. Because of the cost-of-living index's rise, nearly 1,100,000 workers in the auto and farm-equipment industries will get a 2-c--an-hour cost-of-living hike and another 80,000 workers a 1-c- hourly wage increase.

The third-quarter drop in gross national product, which touched off all the recession talk, proved not so severe as previously estimated. The drop was actually only $1.5 billion to $503.5 billion, half a billion less than estimated.

Other pros and cons in the economy: P: New car sales continued their steady rise, were up sharply from a year earlier in mid-November. Dealers delivered 164,784 new U.S.-made cars in the Nov. 11-20 period, or 20,598 in each of the period's eight selling days.

P: ailroad freight carloadings rose slightly over the previous week, though they remain 9.9% below the same week last year.

P: Department-store sales across the U.S. were off 7% for the latest week compared with the same week last year. P: Shipments of major appliances slipped to the year's lowest point in October. Factory sales of refrigerators were 29% below last year, washing machines 30% below.

Looking at the statistics, the Labor Department reported that it sees no impending pickup in new orders that would spur overall factory output: "So far in the fall-period, factory output has not shown a pickup of seasonal proportions."

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