United States Employment Cost Index

Last Release

Dec 31, 2023

Actual

0.9

Units In

1.1

Frequency

Quarterly

Next Release

Apr 30, 2024

Time to Release

2 Months 28 Days 11 Hours

Highest	Lowest	Average	Date Range	Source
2 Sep 1982	0.2 Jun 2015	0.84 %	1982-2023	U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Employment Cost Index measures the growth of employee compensation (wages and benefits). The ECI is based on a survey of employer payrolls in the final month of each quarter. The index tracks movement in the cost of labor, including wages, fringe benefits and bonuses for employees at all levels of a company.

Latest Updates

Compensation costs for civilian workers in the United States increased by 0.9% in the final quarter of 2023, easing from a 1.1% rise in the previous three-month period and falling short of the market consensus of a 1% growth. Employment costs rose at the softest pace since the second quarter of 2021, as wages and salaries advanced by 0.9% (vs 1.2% in Q3) and benefits increased by 0.7% (vs 0.9% in Q3). Compensation costs for private industry workers rose by 0.9% (vs 1.0% in Q3), and those for state and local government workers advanced by 1.0% (vs 1.5% in Q3). Year-on-year, employment costs rose by 4.2% in the October to December period, down from a 4.3% increase in the third quarter.