December 1996 Employment Cost Index

Historical release narrative reproduced from the official public-domain source. Statistical tables, standard technical appendices, administrative material and attendance rosters are omitted; formatting is adapted for reading. Figures retain the release's historical context and may have been revised. Consult the linked source for the complete document.

The Employment Cost Index (ECI) for December 1996 was 130.9 (June 1989=100), an increase of 2.9 percent from December 1995, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The ECI measures changes in compensation costs, which include wages, salaries, and employer costs for employee benefits.

Quarterly changes, seasonally adjusted

On a seasonally adjusted basis, compensation costs for civilian workers (private industry plus state and local governments) increased 0.8 percent in the three months that ended December 1996. This continued a pattern of increases that have ranged from 0.6 to 0.8 percent for the last three years. Wages and salaries increased 0.8 percent during the September-December 1996 period. The increase for the June-September period was 0.6 percent. Benefit costs increased 0.7 percent in December; in September, these costs increased 0.6 percent.

Seasonally adjusted Unadjusted

3-months ended 12-months

Compensation Mar. June Sep. Dec. Mar. June Sep. Dec. ended

Component 1995 1995 1995 1995 1996 1996 1996 1996 Dec. 1996

Compensation costs for private industry workers increased 0.8 percent during the September-December 1996 period. Over the past three years, compensation increases have ranged from 0.6 to 0.8 percent in private industry. Wages and salaries increased 0.7 percent in December; in September, the increase was 0.6 percent. The benefits cost increase of 0.7 percent in December was the same as in the previous two quarters; in March, benefit costs declined 0.1 percent. (See table 1.)

Compensation costs for state and local government workers increased 0.8 percent in the September- December period, up slightly from the 0.5 percent increase reported for the previous quarter. Wages and salaries, which have increased at the rate of 0.6 to 0.8 percent for the last four years, rose 0.8 percent. Benefit costs also increased 0.8 percent; in September, there was no change in benefits cost.

Over-the-year changes, unadjusted

Compensation costs for civilian workers (not seasonally adjusted) increased 2.9 percent for the year ended December 1996, while such costs rose 2.7 percent during the 12-month period that ended December 1995. (See table 2.) In private industry, compensation costs increased 3.1 percent in the year ended in December 1996; in state and local government, compensation costs increased 2.6 percent. (See table 3.)

In private industry, wages and salaries increased 3.4 percent for the 12-month period ended December 1996. For the year that ended December 1995, the increase was 2.8 percent. (See table 6.) Benefit costs for private industry workers increased 2.0 percent in the year ended December 1996. For the 12-month period that ended December 1995, the increase was 2.2 percent. (See table 8.)

Over-the-year compensation cost increases in private industry were 3.2 percent for white-collar workers, 2.7 percent for blue-collar workers, and 3.0 percent for service occupations. Among occupational groups, increases ranged from 1.8 percent for transportation and material moving occupations to 4.0 percent for sales occupations.

For the year ended December 1996, compensation cost gains in private industry were 2.8 percent for goods-producing and 3.2 percent for service-producing industries. Within service-producing industries, increases ranged from 1.7 percent for health services establishments to 4.9 percent for food stores.

Over-the-year compensation cost increases in private industry were 3.1 percent for nonunion workers and 2.4 percent for union workers. The pattern was similar for workers in goods-producing industries where compensation costs increased 3.2 percent for nonunion workers and 1.8 percent for union workers. In service- producing industries, compensation cost increases were about the same for nonunion and union workers, 3.1 and 3.0 percent, respectively. (See table 4.)

Data in this news release for December 1995 and March 1996 were corrected from the originally published estimates. These corrections were introduced with the release of June 1996 ECI data.

Data for aircraft manufacturing (SIC 3721) that formerly appeared in table 9 now appear in the tables that cover the individual compensation components. Thus, compensation estimates appear in table 3, wages and salaries appear in table 6, and benefits appear in table 8. In each of the tables, aircraft manufacturing is listed as a subcomponent of manufacturing.

BLS Data Available on the World Wide Web and Fax On Demand

ECI data, as well as other data produced by BLS, are now available on the World Wide Web. The ECI home page address is: http://stats.bls.gov/ecthome.htm. The BLS home page address is: http://stats.bls.gov. There is no charge from BLS for using this service; however, there may be a charge from your Internet service provider. To access data using GOPHER or Anonymous FTP, use the Internet address: stats.bls.gov.

For technical assistance in using the BLS Internet site, send e-mail to: labstat.helpdesk@bls.gov. For ECI data requests, send e-mail to: ocltinfo@bls.gov.

News releases and other information are available from the BLS fax-on-demand service. To request a document fax, call 202-606-6325. To request a catalog of available documents, select option 2 at the initial voice prompt. To request data found in this news release, select option 1 and enter the following codes: