May 1, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Compensation costs in private industry up 1.9 percent from March 2008 to March 2009

In private industry, compensation costs rose 1.9 percent in the year ended March 2009, significantly less than the increase for the year ended March 2008, which was 3.2 percent.

12-month percent changes in Employment Cost Index, private industry, March 2004-March 2009
[Chart data—TXT]

Private industry wages and salaries decelerated to a 2.0-percent increase for the year ended March 2009. In March 2008, the increase in wages and salaries was 3.2 percent.

Benefit costs increased 1.6 percent for the 12-month period ended March 2009. For the year ended March 2008, the increase in benefit costs was 3.2 percent.

These data are from the BLS Employment Cost Trends program. Compensation costs (also known as employment costs) include wages, salaries, and employer costs for employee benefits. For more information, see "Employment Cost Index—March 2009," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 09-0456.