NOTICE ABOUT ECI ESTIMATES FOR METROPOLITAN AREAS AND REGIONS

Employment Cost Index (ECI) estimates for private industry for 14 metropolitan areas for the year ended September 2008 were released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday, November 20, 2008. For each locality, two estimates are provided: 12-month percent change for total compensation and 12-month percent change for wages and salaries. The data are available in news releases for each area.

The "Employment Cost Index for the Regions" news releases have been discontinued. However, the estimates that have appeared in those releases are available in table 6 (www.bls.gov/news.release/eci.t06.htm) and table 10 (www.bls.gov/news.release/eci.t10.htm) of the "Employment Cost Index" news release issued by the BLS National Office. Historical estimates for these series can be found at www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/regionaleci.htm.

The 14 metropolitan areas are Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville, GA-AL CSA; Boston-Worcester-Manchester, MA-NH CSA; Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City, IL-IN-WI CSA; Dallas-Forth Worth, TX CSA; Detroit-Warren-Flint, MI CSA; Houston-Baytown-Huntsville, TX CSA; Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA CSA; Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL MSA; Minneapolis-St. Paul-St. Cloud, MN-WI CSA; New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA CSA; Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland, PA-NJ-DE-MD CSA; Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ MSA; San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA CSA; and Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV CSA.