-16-

   Table 1.  All Employees:  Indexes of hourly compensation costs in manufacturing, 32
             countries or areas and selected economic groups, selected years, 1996-2007


   Country or Area                 1996    1998    2000    2002    2004    2005    2006    2007


   Americas
   United States.............       100     100     100     100     100     100     100     100
   Argentina.................        33      34      33      11      15      18      22      26
   Brazil....................        32      29      17      11      13      17      20      23
   Canada....................        86      78      76      70      84      90      98     104
   Mexico....................        10      10      12      13      12      12      12      13

   Asia and Oceania
   Australia.................        90      77      70      66      95      99     102     114
   Israel....................        51      53      52      46      47      47      48      52
   Japan.....................       108      90     103      81      88      86      81      78
   Korea, Republic of........        41      28      38      36      42      48      55      60
   New Zealand...............        57      45      38      37      52      56      54      63
   Philippines...............         6       4       4       3       3       4       4       4
   Singapore.................        54      50      47      45      45      44      46      50
   Taiwan....................        31      27      30      25      25      26      27      27

   Europe
   Austria...................       142     121     100      98     123     124     128     141
   Belgium...................       124     107      89      88     114     113     116     127
   Czech Republic............        15      15      14      17      23      24      27      32
   Denmark...................         -     113      98     101     130     132     137     156
   Finland...................       114      97      81      83     112     113     118     130
   France....................       127     109      88      85     109     108     112     123
   Germany...................         -     144     119     117     152     147     154     166
   Hungary...................        17      16      14      19      26      27      28      34
   Ireland...................        79      75      66      73      98      99     103     117
   Italy.....................        94      83      67      68      93      93      96     105
   Netherlands...............         -     103      85      89     118     117     118     129
   Norway....................         -     121     106     120     145     150     157     180
   Poland....................         -      15      14      15      17      19      21      25
   Portugal..................        26      25      22      24      31      31      31      34
   Slovakia..................         -      13      11      12      18      20      22      28
   Spain.....................        69      60      50      51      69      69      72      80
   Sweden....................       116     103      89      85     113     110     114     127
   Switzerland...............       149     123     100     104     123     121     121     125
   United Kingdom............        75      86      82      83     104     105     108     120

   Trade-Weighted Measures (1,2)
   All 31 Foreign Economies..         -      70      66      62      75      76      79      85
   OECD (3)..................         -      74      70      66      81      82      85      91
   Europe....................         -     105      88      89     115     114     118     129
   Euro Area (4).............         -     110      91      91     119     117     122     133
   Eastern Europe (5)........         -      15      13      16      21      23      24      29
   East Asia ex-Japan (6)....         -      30      34      32      34      37      40      43

   Dash means data not available.
   (1) For a description of trade-weighted measures and economic groups, see the Technical
       Notes preceding these tables.
   (2) The trade-weighted measures for all employees in this table are not directly comparable
       with those for production workers later in this release; the country coverage of
       the two series differs slightly.
   (3) Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
   (4) Euro Area refers to European Union member countries in this release that have adopted
       the Euro as the common currency as of January 1, 2009.
   (5) Eastern Europe refers to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.
   (6) East Asia ex-Japan includes the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Singapore,
       and Taiwan.

   Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 2009.