November 4, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Compensation costs in State and local government, September 2008

Compensation costs for State and local government workers increased 0.9 percent from June to September 2008 (seasonally adjusted), the same as in the previous quarter.

[Chart data—TXT]

Wages and salaries for State and local government rose 1.0 percent for the June to September 2008 period, compared with 0.9 percent in the prior quarter.

Benefit costs increased 0.7 percent from June to September 2008, less than the 1.1-percent increase in the previous quarter.

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. Data are subject to revision. For more information, see "Employment Cost Index – September 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 08-1553.

Related TED article:

• Employment costs in private industry, September 2008