November 1, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Movements in constant-dollar wages and salaries, 1976-98
Last year, wages
and salaries adjusted for inflation increased by 2.2 percent in private
industry—the same change as in 1997. The 1998 increase marked the sixth
year in a row that inflation-adjusted wages and salaries rose.
[Chart data—TXT]
Since its inception in the mid-1970s, the Employment Cost Index for
wages and salaries in private industry adjusted for inflation has
increased in 14 years and has fallen in 9. The largest increase in the
constant-dollar ECI for wages and salaries occurred in 1982, when it rose
by 2.4 percent. The steepest decline took place in 1979, when the
constant-dollar ECI for wages and salaries fell by 4.1 percent.
The Employment Cost Index is a fixed-employment-weighted index that
tracks quarterly changes in labor costs, free from the influence of
employment shifts among occupations and industries. The Consumer Price
Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) is used to adjust the ECI for
inflation.
These data are a product of the BLS Employment
Cost Trends program. Annual changes
are December to December. Find out more in Employment Cost Indexes,
1975-98, BLS Bulletin 2514.
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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