Economics
U.S. Employment Costs Climb by a Solid 1% After Record Third-Quarter Gain
- Compared with prior quarter ECI rose 1% after record 1.3% gain
- Wages and salaries increased 4.5% in year through December
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U.S. employment costs rose at a robust pace for a second-straight quarter, wrapping up the strongest year of labor inflation in two decades as businesses competed for a limited supply of workers.
The employment cost index, a broad gauge of wages and benefits, advanced 1% in the fourth quarter, according to Labor Department figures released Friday. That followed a 1.3% advance seen in the third quarter, which was the strongest quarterly increase in comparable data back to 2001.