October 31, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Drop in compensation costs in constant dollars, September 2005
Measured in "constant dollars," it is estimated that annual
compensation costs for private industry workers decreased 1.6 percent for the
year ended September 2005, compared with a 1.2-percent over-the-year increase
for September 2004.
![12-month percent changes in compenation costs (Employment Cost Index), private industry, constant dollars, not seasonally adjusted, September 2000-05](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120925015012im_/http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/images/2005/oct/wk5/art01.gif) [Chart data—TXT]
Private-sector wages declined by 2.4 percent in constant dollars from September
2004 to September 2005; benefit costs rose 0.1 percent.
Compensation costs decreased 0.9 percent for State and local government for the
year ended September 2005, compared with an over-the-year gain of 0.8 percent
in September 2004.
These data are from the BLS Compensation Cost Trends program. Quarterly and annual ECI changes are computed in terms of June 1989 dollars ("constant
dollars") using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. City Average All Items to give an approximate measure of changes in compensation costs after adjustment for the changes over the same time in the price of consumer goods and services. For more information, see
"Employment Cost Index –September
2005" (PDF) (TXT),
news release USDL 05-2086.
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.
.
Read more »
|