September 23, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

U.S. and foreign compensation costs in manufacturing

In 2000, compensation costs for production workers in manufacturing in the U.S. continued to be among the highest in the world.

[Chart data—TXT]

Compensation costs in the U.S. were well above that of Canada, Mexico, and a group of four newly industrializing economies in Asia including Hong Kong, Korea (the Republic of Korea), Singapore, and Taiwan in 2000. Costs in Japan, however, were 11 percent higher than costs in the United States.

For the first time since 1989, average hourly compensation costs for manufacturing production workers in the United States rose above hourly compensation costs in Europe in U.S. dollar terms in 2000.

International comparisons of labor statistics are from the Foreign Labor Statistics program. Find out more in "A perspective on U.S. and foreign compensation costs in manufacturing," by Chris Sparks, Theo Bikol, and Lisa Moglia, Monthly Labor Review, June 2002.