November 3, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Employment costs in private industry, September 2008

In private industry, compensation costs rose 2.8 percent in the year ended September 2008; the increase for the year ended September 2007 was 3.1 percent.

[Chart data—TXT]

Private industry wages and salaries increased 2.9 percent in September 2008. In September 2007 the increase was 3.4 percent. Benefit costs increased 2.4 percent in the 12-month period ended September 2008, the same as in the previous period.

Compensation costs (also known as employment costs) include wages, salaries, and employer costs for employee benefits.

These data are from the BLS Employment Cost Trends program. For more information, see "Employment Cost Index – September 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 08-1553.