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Economy in Brief
U.S. FHFA House Price Index Rose Further in November
The FHFA House Price Index increased 1.0% m/m in November...
U.S. Energy Prices Are Mixed
The price of regular gasoline rose to $2.39 per gallon (-4.5% y/y) in the week ended January 25...
U.K. Retail Survey Shows Extreme Weakness
The CBI U.K. retail volume survey shows dramatically weakened data for January and for the February outlook...
Texas Manufacturing Activity Weakens Further During January
The Dallas Fed reported that its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey General Business Activity Index fell to 7.0 during January...
Chicago Fed National Activity Index Improves During December
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's National Activity Index increased to 0.52 during December...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller October 30, 2009
Employment
compensation picked up slightly last quarter, but high unemployment
dragged down the y/y change to its lowest on record. (The series dates
back to 1980). The total employment cost index for private industry
workers rose 0.5% during 3Q following gains of 0.2% during the prior
two quarters. The latest rise about matched Consensus
expectations.
Improved wage and salary growth provided most
of the "oomph" to last quarter's gain with a 0.5% rise. However, here
again, the y/y gain of 1.3% was a new record low.
In the factory sector
wages rose just 1.2% y/y but in the education & health care
sectors wages rose a still-modest 1.8%. In the goods producing sector
wage growth fell to just 1.2% and in education & health
services they rose 1.8%.
Total benefit costs in private sector increased just 0.3% and the 1.0% y/y gain was a record low. What y/y strength there was was led by a 2.3% gain in production, transportation & materials handling industries and a 1.6% rise in services occupations. The cost of health benefits showed a stable 4.7% rise in the latest 12 months. · The employment cost index figures are available in Haver's USECON database.
Financial Intermediaries and Monetary Economics from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York can be found here.
ECI - Private Industry Workers (%) | 3Q '09 | 2Q '09 | 1Q '09 | 3Q Y/Y | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Compensation | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 2.8 | 3.1 | 2.9 |
Wages & Salaries | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 3.0 | 3.4 | 2.9 |
Benefit Costs | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 2.6 | 2.4 | 2.9 |