September 1997 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 September 1997 was 134.1 (June 1989=100), an increase of 3.0 percent from September 1996, 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) rose 0.8 percent during the June-September 1997 period, the same as the March-June 1997 increase. Wages and salaries increased 0.9 percent from June to September, following a gain of 0.8 percent in the March-June quarter. Benefit costs increased 0.4 percent during the June-September quarter; in the March-June quarter, the increase was 0.6 percent.

Seasonally adjusted 3-months ended Unadjusted 12-months ended Sep. 1997 Compensation Dec. Mar. June Sep. Dec. Mar. June Sep. Component 1995 1996 1996 1996 1996 1997 1997 1997

Compensation costs for private industry workers increased 0.8 percent during the June-September 1997 period, the same as the March-June quarter. Wages and salaries rose 0.9 percent, also the same as the March-June increase. Benefit costs increased 0.5 percent, following a March-June quarterly increase of 0.7 percent. (See table 1.)

Compensation costs for state and local government workers increased 0.5 percent during the June- September 1997 period, the same as the March-June quarter. Wages and salaries increased 0.7 percent; in the March-June quarter, the increase was 0.6 percent. Benefits increased 0.2 percent; the previous quarterly increase was 0.1 percent.

Over-the-year changes, unadjusted

Compensation costs for civilian workers (not seasonally adjusted) were up 3.0 percent for the year ended September 1997; the increase for the year ended September 1996 was 2.8 percent. Compensation costs in private industry rose 3.2 percent; in September 1996 the increase was 2.9 percent. Compensation costs for state and local governments increased 2.4 percent for the year ending in September 1997; the gain for the year ending in September 1996 was 2.5 percent. (See tables 2 and 3.)

Private industry

In private industry, wages and salaries grew 3.6 percent for the year ended September 1997; the increase for the year ended September 1996 was 3.3 percent. (See table 6.) Benefit costs for private industry workers increased 2.0 percent for the year ended in September 1997; the increase for the year ended in September 1996 was 1.8 percent. (See table 8.)

In private industry, over-the-year compensation cost increases were 3.1 percent for white-collar occupations, 2.8 percent for blue-collar occupations, and 4.5 percent for service occupations. Among the occupational groups, increases ranged from 2.5 percent for transportation and material moving occupations to 4.5 percent for service occupations. Compensation for sales occupations, which tend to be volatile due to commission sales, rose 4.3 percent; in September 1996, the over-the-year increase was 2.8 percent.

For the year ended September 1997, compensation costs in goods-producing industries increased 2.7 percent, about the same as the 2.8 percent increase for the year ended September 1996. In service- producing industries, compensation costs increased 3.3 percent; in September 1996, the over-the-year increase was 2.9 percent. Among industry divisions, over-the-year increases ranged from 2.5 percent in manufacturing to 3.9 percent in retail trade.

Over-the-year compensation cost increases in private industry were 2.4 percent for union workers and 3.2 percent for nonunion workers. The pattern was similar for both goods-producing and service-producing industries. In goods-producing industries, the increase for union workers was 2.4 percent and the increase for nonunion workers was 2.8 percent. In service-producing industries, union workers’ compensation increased 2.3 percent, and nonunion workers’ compensation increased 3.5 percent. (See table 4.)

State and local government

Compensation costs in state and local government increased 2.4 percent for the year ended September 1997, about the same as the 2.5 percent increase for the year ended in September 1996. However, the 2.4 percent increase was lower than the average yearly increase of 3.6 percent for the previous 7 years (1990- 96). For the year ended September 1997, the increase in wages and salaries was 2.7 percent, and benefits increased 1.5 percent. For the previous year ended in September 1996, wages and salaries increased 2.8 percent, and benefits increased 1.9 percent. (See tables 2, 5, and 8; table B; and charts B, C, and D.)

Compensation Sep. Sep. Sep. Sep. Sep. Sep. Sep. Sep. Ave. yearly increase Component 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 Sep. 1990-96

The Bureau is evaluating published ECI series to assure that they meet statistical standards for reliability. Preliminary research has targeted 37 series for elimination from the news release. These series are marked with a footnote in the accompanying tables. Series that fail reliability standards will be removed from the news release beginning in September 1998 and will be available only upon request.

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. 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, enter the following codes: