February 1, 2012 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Employment costs in private industry and state and local government, December 2011
Compensation costs for private industry workers increased 2.2 percent over the 12-month period ending December 2011, compared to the 2.1 percent increase for the previous 12-month period.
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Wages and salaries for private industry workers increased 1.6 percent for the current 12-month period. The increase for the 12-month period ending December 2010 was 1.8 percent. The increase in the cost of benefits was 3.6 percent for the 12-month period ending December 2011, higher than the December 2010 increase of 2.9 percent.
The increase in compensation costs for state and local government workers for the 12-month period ending December 2011 was 1.3 percent. In December 2010, the increase for the 12-month period was 1.8 percent. Values for this series (which began in June 1982) have ranged from the current period's 1.3 percent to 9.6 percent.
Wages and salaries for state and local government workers increased 1.0 percent for the 12-month period ending December 2011. A year earlier, the increase was 1.2 percent. Prior values for this series (which also began in June 1982) ranged from 1.0 percent to 8.5 percent. Benefit costs increased 2.1 percent in December 2011, down from the December 2010 increase of 2.9 percent. Prior values for this series (which began in June 1990) ranged from 1.2 percent to 8.3 percent.
These data are from the BLS Employment Cost Trends program. To learn more, see "Employment Cost Index — December 2011," (HTML) (PDF) news release USDL USDL-12-0158. Compensation costs (also known as employment costs) include wages, salaries, and employer costs for employee benefits.
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