January 19, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Hourly compensation still higher in Europe than U.S.
In Europe, hourly
compensation costs in U.S. dollars for production workers in manufacturing
were 11 percent higher than in the United States in 1998.
[Chart data—TXT]
Hourly compensation costs in U.S. dollars were $20.67 in Europe in
1998, compared to $18.56 in the U.S. This gap of 11 percent is much
smaller than it was three years earlier—in 1995, compensation costs in
Europe exceeded those in the United States by 28 percent.
For all 28 foreign economies studied by BLS, average hourly
compensation costs were $14.69 in 1998. This was 79 percent of the U.S.
level, down from 95 percent in 1995. The widening gap reflected the
continued appreciation of the U.S. dollar against most foreign currencies,
particularly the Asian currencies.
In the Asian newly industrializing economies (NIEs), hourly
compensation costs in manufacturing were $5.72 in 1998. Hourly costs in
the Asian NIEs are now less than one-third the U.S. level.
These data are a product of the BLS Foreign
Labor Statistics program. The Asian
newly industrialized economies include Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, and
Taiwan. For additional information, see news release USDL 00-07, International
Comparisons of Hourly Compensation Costs for Production Workers in
Manufacturing, 1998. Note that the
statistics for groups of foreign economies presented here reflect exchange
rates as well as hourly compensation expressed in each country’s
national currency.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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