February 04, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Employment cost increases by region in 2003

Among the regions in the year ended December 2003, increases in employment costs ranged from 3.1 percent in the South to 4.8 percent in the Midwest. Compensation costs rose 4.1 percent in the Northeast and 4.4 percent in the West.

[Chart data—TXT]

All four of these increases were higher than in the previous year. In the year ended in December 2002, compensation costs were up 2.8 percent in the South, 3.2 percent in the Northeast, 3.5 percent in the West, and 3.8 percent in the Midwest.

These data are from the BLS Compensation Cost Trends program. Compensation costs (also known as employment costs) include wages, salaries, and employer costs for employee benefits. For more information, see "Employment Cost Index – December 2003" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 04-83.

 

Related TED article:

• Compensation costs up 4.0 percent in private industry over the year