Recent Updates
- Turkey: IIP, International Reserves, Foreign Trade Indexes (Nov)
- Poland: Employment (Prelim), PPI (Dec)
- Bulgaria: BOP (Sep), Registered Unemployment (Dec)
- Ireland: General Government Transactions (Q3)
- Romania: Retail Trade Index, Industrial Turnover Detail, New Orders Detail (Nov)
- GermanR: Retail Trade: Berlin, Brandenburg (Nov), Bremen (Oct)
- Croatia: House Price Indexes (Q3)
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Economy in Brief
Delay in Release
of Data for Construction, MSIO, Intl Trade, Wholesale Trade, Monthly Treasury, Retail Sales, Business Sales & Inventories, and Housing Starts Due to Lapse in Federal Government Funding.
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Slip
Initial claims for jobless insurance eased to 213,000 (-2.6% y/y) during the week ended January 12...
Passenger Car Registrations Hold to Low Ground in Europe
Passenger car registrations in Europe fell on a year-over-year comparison for the fourth consecutive months in December...
U.S. Import Prices Pulled Lower by Falling Oil Prices
Import prices fell 1.0% during December following a 1.8% November decline...
U.S. Home Builder Index Improves
The NAHB -Wells Fargo Composite Housing Market Index rose to 58 during January...
by Tom Moeller July 29, 2005
The employment cost index for private industry workers rose the same 0.6% last quarter as during 1Q05 and contrasted to Consensus expectations for a 0.8% increase.
The 0.8% increase in benefit costs was the slowest since early 2002 and reflected slower growth in the service sector while benefit costs grew more rapidly in manufacturing. The y/y gain in the cost of health benefits fell to 6.3%, the slowest since 1999.
Wage and salary growth was stable at 0.6%. Wages account for roughly 70% of the compensation index.
Labor Market Developments in the United States and Canada since 2000 from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is available here.
| ECI- Private Industry Workers | 2Q '05 | 1Q '05 | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compensation | 0.6% | 0.6% | 3.2% | 3.8% | 4.0% | 3.2% |
| Wages & Salaries | 0.6% | 0.6% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 3.0% | 2.7% |
| Benefit Costs | 0.8% | 1.1% | 4.9% | 6.9% | 6.4% | 4.7% |
