December 8, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Unit labor costs in the third quarter
Unit labor costs in nonfarm business fell at a
seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.2 percent in the third quarter of
1999. In the previous quarter, unit labor costs rose at an annual rate of
4.2 percent.
[Chart data—TXT]
In manufacturing, unit labor costs rose 2.3 percent in the third
quarter of 1999. Unit labor costs in manufacturing increased by 0.3
percent in the second quarter. Note that, although the change in
unit labor costs in manufacturing was greater than in nonfarm business in
the third quarter, in 9 of the 10 previous quarters the reverse was true.
Unit labor costs—the cost of the labor input required to produce one
unit of output—are computed by dividing labor costs in nominal terms by
real output. Labor costs account for approximately 63 percent of all
nonfarm business expenses.
These data are a product of the BLS Quarterly
Labor Productivityprogram. Data are subject to revision. Additional
information is available in "Productivity
and Costs, Third Quarter, 1999," news release USDL 99-347. Unit
labor costs also can be expressed as the ratio of hourly compensation to
labor productivity.
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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