Employment Cost Index

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EMPLOYMENT COST INDEX - December 2020

Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 0.7 percent, seasonally adjusted, for the 3-month period ending in December 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries increased 0.9 percent and benefit costs increased 0.6 percent from September 2020. (See chart 1 and tables A, 1, 2, and 3.)

Chart 1. Three-month percent change, seasonally adjusted, civilian workers, total compensation

Chart 2. Twelve-month percent change, not seasonally adjusted, civilian workers

1.0
						5.0				Wages and salaries
0.8										Benefits
						4.0
0.6						3.0
0.4						2.0
0.2						1.0
0.0						0.0
2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020

Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 2.5 percent for the 12-month period ending in December 2020 and increased 2.7 percent in December 2019. Wages and salaries increased 2.6 percent over the year and increased 2.9 percent for the 12-month period ending in December 2019. Benefit costs increased 2.3 percent over the year and increased 2.2 percent for the 12-month period ending in December 2019. (See chart 2 and tables A, 4, 8, and 12.)

Compensation costs for private industry workers increased 2.6 percent over the year. In December 2019, the increase was 2.7 percent. Wages and salaries increased 2.8 percent for the 12-month period ending in December 2020 and increased 3.0 percent in December 2019. The cost of benefits increased 2.1 percent for the 12-month period ending in December 2020 and increased 1.9 percent in December 2019. (See charts 3 and 4 and tables A, 5, 9, and 12.)

Employer costs for health benefits increased 1.9 percent for the 12-month period ending in December 2020. (For further information, see chart 3 and www.bls.gov/web/eci/echealth.pdf.)

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Impact on the December 2020 Employment Cost Index

Response rates for December were comparable with prior releases, and no changes in estimation procedures were necessary. Additional information is available at www.bls.gov/bls/effects-of-covid-19-on-workplace-injuries-and-illnesses-compensation-and-occupational-requirements.htm#ECI.

Chart 3. Twelve-month percent change, not seasonally adjusted, private industry workers

Chart 4. Twelve-month percent change, not seasonally adjusted, private industry workers

5.0				Health benefits	5.0				Wages and salaries
4.0				Benefits		4.0				Benefits
3.0						3.0
2.0						2.0
1.0						1.0
0.0						0.0
2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020

Among private industry occupational groups, compensation cost increases for the 12-month period ending in December 2020 ranged from 2.0 percent for management, professional, and

related occupations to 3.6 percent for service occupations. Within industry supersectors, compensation cost increases ranged from 2.2 percent for both other services and education

and health services to 3.4 percent for leisure and hospitality. (See table 5.)

Compensation costs for state and local government workers increased 2.3 percent for the 12-month period ending in December 2020, compared with an increase of 2.9 percent in December 2019. Wages and salaries increased 1.8 percent for the 12-month period ending in December 2020 and 2.5 percent a year ago. Benefit costs increased 3.1 percent for the 12-month period ending in December 2020. The prior year increase was 3.3 percent. (See chart 5 and tables A, 7, 11, and 12.)

Chart 5. Twelve-month percent change, not seasonally adjusted, state and local government workers

5.0				Wages and salaries
4.0				Benefits
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020

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TECHNICAL NOTE

The Employment Cost Index (ECI) measures the change in the cost of labor, free from the influence of employment shifts among occupations and industries. For information on survey concepts, coverage, methods, nonresponse adjustment, and imputation see National Compensation Measures Handbook of Methods at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/ncs/home.htm.

Sample size

Data for this reference period were collected from a probability sample of approximately 24,600 occupational observations selected from a sample of about 6,000 private industry establishments and approximately 7,800 occupational observations selected from a sample of about 1,400 state and local government establishments that provided data at the initial interview.

Standard errors

To assist users in ascertaining the reliability of ECI series, standard errors of all current quarter not seasonally adjusted 3- and 12-month percent change series are also available, see www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/ectvar.htm and the database query tool at www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/data.htm. Standard errors provide users a measure of the precision of an estimate to ensure that it is within an acceptable range for their intended purpose.

Historical listings

Historical listings are available at www.bls.gov/ect/#tables. The continuous occupational and industry series listing uses the Standard Industrial Classification Manual and Occupational Classification System series from 1975 through 2005 and the North American Industry Classification System and Standard Occupational Classification from 2006 to the present. It provides the official series deemed continuous after the change in classification systems. For more information on the criteria used in defining continuous series, see the article published in the Monthly Labor Review at www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2006/04/art2full.pdf.

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation data

The costs per hour worked of compensation components are published as part of the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) news release. The ECEC release dates are available at

www.bls.gov/schedule/news_release/ecec.htm. Historical ECEC data are available in summary documents at www.bls.gov/ect/#tables. Since the ECEC is calculated with current employment weights rather than the fixed weights used in computing the ECI, year-to-year changes in the cost levels usually differ from those in the ECI.

Fixed employment weights

For additional information on the use of fixed employment weights in computing the ECI, see www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2016/article/introducing-2012-fixed-employment-weights-for-the-employment-cost-index.htm.

Seasonal factors

The 2021 seasonal factors for directly adjusted series and revised seasonally adjusted series for the past five years are scheduled for release with the March 2021 Employment Cost Index on April 30, 2021 at 8:30 a.m. ET, see www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/ectsfact.htm.

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Table 1. Employment Cost Index for total compensation, by occupational group and industry1

[Seasonally adjusted]

	Indexes			Percent changes for 3-months ended-
	(Dec.2005=100)
Occupational group and industry
Sep.	Dec.	Dec.	Mar.	Jun.	Sep.	Dec.	Mar.	Jun.	Sep.	Dec.
	2020	2020	2018	2019	2019	2019	2019	2020	2020	2020	2020
Civilian workers
All workers2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	141.4	142.4	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.5	0.5	0.7
Industry
Goods-producing industries3. . . . . . . . . . . .	138.1	139.1	0.6	0.8	0.7	0.8	0.7	0.5	0.7	0.3	0.7
Manufacturing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	137.7	138.6	0.6	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.5	0.7	0.4	0.7
Service-providing industries4. . . . . . . . . . . .	142.1	143.2	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.9	0.4	0.5	0.8
Education and health services. . . . . . .	140.9	141.7	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.5	0.8	0.2	0.6	0.6
Educational services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	141.7	142.5	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.9	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.2	0.6
Elementary and secondary
schools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	142.2	143.1	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.9	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.6
Junior colleges, colleges,
universities, and professional
schools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	140.4	141.0	0.8	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.6	-0.4	0.4
Health care and social
assistance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	140.2	140.9	0.7	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.5	0.7	-0.1	1.1	0.5
Hospitals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	141.0	141.6	0.9	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.5	0.4
Nursing and residential care
facilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	137.5	138.6	0.7	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.4	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.8
Public administration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	146.3	147.1	0.7	0.9	0.6	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.6	0.5	0.5
Private industry workers
All workers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	140.6	141.8	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.4	0.5	0.9
Occupational group
Management, professional, and
related. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	138.9	139.7	0.6	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.7	0.3	0.4	0.6
Management, business, and
financial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	140.5	141.2	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.6	0.4	0.3	0.5
Professional and related. . . . . . . . . . . . . .	137.8	138.6	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.1	0.6	0.6
Sales and office. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	141.7	143.6	0.9	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.7	0.9	0.7	0.1	1.3
Sales and related. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	137.3	140.0	1.1	0.5	0.5	0.9	0.8	1.3	1.0	-0.4	2.0
Office and administrative support. . . .	144.7	146.0	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.9
Natural resources, construction, and
maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	140.5	141.4	0.7	0.7	0.4	0.8	0.7	1.0	0.2	0.6	0.6
Construction, extraction, farming,
fishing, and forestry occupations. .	140.3	141.3	0.6	0.8	0.7	0.9	0.7	1.2	-0.6	0.5	0.7
Installation, maintenance, and
repair. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	140.6	141.5	0.6	0.5	0.1	0.7	0.6	0.8	1.0	0.6	0.6
Production, transportation, and
material moving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	142.6	144.1	0.6	1.0	0.7	0.7	0.9	0.7	0.9	0.6	1.1
Production. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	139.4	140.4	0.5	0.9	0.7	0.5	0.7	0.7	1.0	0.6	0.7
Transportation and material
moving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	146.7	148.6	0.7	1.1	0.7	0.8	1.2	0.6	1.0	0.7	1.3
Service occupations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	144.4	145.8	0.9	0.9	1.0	0.7	1.1	0.8	0.8	0.9	1.0
Industry
Goods-producing industries3. . . . . . . . . . . . . .	138.1	139.0	0.6	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.6	0.5	0.7	0.4	0.7
Construction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	139.4	140.4	0.7	0.8	0.9	1.0	0.7	0.5	0.9	0.3	0.7
Manufacturing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	137.7	138.6	0.6	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.5	0.7	0.4	0.7
Aircraft manufacturing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	123.4	123.9	0.2	0.7	0.4	0.3	0.2	-1.6	1.5	0.9	0.4
Service-providing industries5. . . . . . . . . . . . . .	141.4	142.6	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.9	0.4	0.6	0.8
Trade, transportation, and utilities. . . . . .	143.7	145.4	0.6	0.8	0.5	0.7	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.4	1.2
Wholesale trade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	138.0	138.1	0.7	0.8	-0.3	0.7	0.1	1.2	0.7	0.3	0.1
Retail trade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	144.6	147.2	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.9	0.6	0.5	0.6	1.8
Transportation and warehousing. . . .	147.9	150.0	0.6	0.9	0.8	0.8	1.3	0.6	0.9	0.3	1.4
Utilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	153.5	154.9	0.6	1.6	0.7	0.6	0.8	0.1	0.9	0.5	0.9
Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	138.9	140.5	0.4	0.5	-0.9	0.4	0.8	0.6	0.9	0.5	1.2
Financial activities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	141.0	141.9	0.6	0.9	0.4	1.2	0.5	0.8	0.6	0.4	0.6
Finance and insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	141.5	142.5	0.5	1.0	0.3	1.2	0.6	0.9	0.5	0.3	0.7

See footnotes at end of table.

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