Rise in Employment Cost Index for June

 

Employment Cost Index, 12-month percent change, not seasonally adjusted, private industry workers, health benefits, from June 2007 to June 2009. Employment Cost Index measures change in the cost of labor, free from the influence of employment shifts among occupations and industries. - Courtesy of Bureau of Labor Statistics

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Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 0.4 percent, seasonally adjusted, for the 3-month period ending June 2009. Wages and salaries, which make up about 70 percent of compensation, also increased 0.4 percent for the 3-month period ending June 2009. Benefit costs, which make up the remaining 30 percent of compensation, increased 0.3 percent.

Civilian workers compensation costs increased 1.8 percent for the 12-month period ending June 2009. This was smaller than the 3.1 percent increase for the 12-month period ending in June 2008.

Compensation costs for private industry workers increased 1.5 percent for the 12-month period ending June 2009. This is the smallest percent change published for this series since it began in 1980. The deceleration of cost increases was evident in both wages and salaries as well as benefits, registering the smallest increases published in the series history.