September 8, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
No change in foreign wage differential
Average hourly
compensation costs in U.S. dollars for manufacturing production workers in
28 foreign economies remained at 79 percent of the U.S. level in 1999.
Wages in these economies, taken
as a group, had declined in the previous three years.
![Index of hourly compensation costs in U.S. dollars for factory workers, 1998 and 1999](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120925070557im_/http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/images/2000/Sept/wk1/art04.gif)
[Chart data—TXT]
Although costs in Europe and Canada
continued to decline relative to the United States, compensation costs in
Mexico, Japan, and the Asian newly industrializing economies (NIEs) of
Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan increased at a faster rate than in
the United States.
In the United States, hourly compensation
costs for production workers were $19.20 in 1999, a 2.9 percent increase
from the 1998 level. Average hourly compensation costs in Europe were
$20.31, the lowest for this region in three years.
These data are a product of the Foreign
Labor Statistics program. Changes in
compensation costs in U.S. dollars reflect both the movements of costs in
national currencies and changes in exchange rates. Read more on foreign
labor costs in news release USDL 00-254, International
Comparisons of Hourly Compensation Costs for Production Workers in
Manufacturing, 1999.
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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Read more »