The New ECI "Exclusionary" Series: An Improved Measure to Control for Wage Volatility
|
All workers | Excluding sales occupations | Excluding incentive paid occupations | |
---|---|---|---|
Civilian workers |
|||
Civilian, all workers |
0.7 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
Civilian, white-collar |
0.7 | 0.8 | -- |
Private industry workers |
|||
Private industry, all workers |
0.7 | 0.9 | 0.8 |
Occupational group |
|||
White-collar occupations |
0.8 | 1.0 | -- |
Management, professional, and related |
1.1 | -- | 1.0 |
Management, business, and financial |
1.3 | -- | 1.1 |
Sales and office |
0.4 | -- | 0.8 |
Sales and related |
-0.2 | -- | 0.9 |
Blue-collar, Production, transportation, and material moving |
0.6 | -- | 0.6 |
Production |
0.7 | -- | 0.6 |
Industry and occupational group |
|||
Goods producing industries |
0.7 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
Goods producing, white-collar |
0.7 | 1.1 | -- |
Manufacturing, white-collar |
0.6 | 1.1 | -- |
Service providing industries |
0.8 | 0.9 | 0.9 |
Service providing, white-collar |
0.8 | 1.0 | -- |
Trade, transportation, and utilities |
0.4 | -- | 0.7 |
Wholesale trade |
0.2 | 0.9 | 1.1 |
Retail trade |
0.5 | -- | 0.7 |
Financial activities |
1.3 | 1.9 | 1.2 |
Credit intermediation and related activities |
1.5 | -- | 1.3 |
Insurance carriers and related activities |
1.0 | 1.1 | 0.9 |
Real estate and rental and leasing |
-0.2 | -- | 0.9 |
Note: Dashes indicate data not available. | |||
Source: Employment Cost Index--March 2006, USDL 06-732 (U.S. Department of Labor), April 28, 2006, tables 8, 9. |
Note: Each exclusionary series had a lower standard error than that of its complementary all-worker series. Also, in each case, the "excluding incentive paid occupations" series had a lower standard error than its complementary "excluding sales occupations" series.4 Because data for the new series have been published only for December 2005 and March 2006, it is too early to analyze longer trends.
SOURCE: Employment Cost Index--March 2006, USDL 06-732 (U.S. Department of Labor), April 28, 2006; available on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/eci_04282006.pdf.
1 The basic unit of observation for the Employment Cost Index is a unique occupation (or "quote") within an establishment. Among other characteristics, all workers in a quote are defined as either incentive paid or time-based (nonincentive) paid. Data for workers in incentive-paid occupations are omitted for the "exclusionary series." The new base for these series was set at 100 in December 2005; March 2006 was the first quarter in which a 3-month change could be registered.
2 See Anthony J. Barkume and Thomas G. Moehrle, "The Role of Incentive Pay in the Volatility of the Employment Cost Index," Compensation and Working Conditions, Summer 2001, pp. 13-18; available on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/archive/summer2001art2.pdf.
3 Several existing series that exclude sales workers are still being published, but they will be discontinued with the release of the March 2007 ECI data.
4 The most recent ECI standard errors are available online at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/ectvar.htm and http://www.bls.gov/web/eci.supp.toc.htm#stanerr_txt.
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