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Employment Cost Index
? Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor
Statistics
? Release Time: 8:30 ET, near the end of the first
month of the quarter for the prior quarter.
? Raw Data Available
At: http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/eci.toc.htm.
Fed Chairman Greenspan, July 1996, mentioned the Employment Cost Index, it has become more fashionable of late to use this economic report in bond market. Its come behind nature still leaves it with something to be desired and makes it a less timely indicator of employment cost courses than the employment report's monthly hourly earnings data. But the ECI does add something to this picture: a readjustment for shifting employment between industries, and it takes a look at benefit costs. These additions to the report will catch your eye, but generally they do not alter the view of employment cost which was supported by hourly earnings. The ECI will be much less closely examined during periods when wage inflation is not taken as a serious market concern.
The market focuses on the quarterly and yearly changes in
each of three sections: total employment costs, wages and salaries, and
benefit costs. Large year-end bonuses in the financial industry
sometimes adjust the numbers, therefore, analysts often take out the sales
commission component of salaries to temper this factor.
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Q1 |
Q2 |
Q3 |
Q4 | |
| 2007 | 0.8% |