November 5, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Compensation rising more rapidly in service sector than in goods-producing sector

Compensation in private service-producing industries increased by 3.8 percent in 1998, compared to 2.8 percent in goods-producing industries.

[Chart data—TXT]

Each year from 1995 to 1998, the increase in the Employment Cost Index (ECI) for compensation in the service sector was greater than the increase in the ECI for the goods-producing sector. The biggest difference in the movements of the series in this period occurred in 1997, when the service-sector ECI rose by 3.9 percent and the goods-sector ECI by 2.4 percent.

Between 1990 and 1994, the increase in the ECI for goods-producing industries was higher than the increase in the service-sector ECI every year. However, the differences in the movements of the two series were smaller in this period than in the 1995-98 period.

These data are a product of the BLS Employment Cost Trends program. Annual changes are December to December. The Employment Cost Index is a fixed-employment-weighted index that tracks quarterly changes in labor costs, free from the influence of employment shifts among occupations and industries. Find out more in Employment Cost Indexes, 1975-98, BLS Bulletin 2514.