Regional News Releases

Subscribe to the BLS News Service — receive the Employment Cost Index and Employer Costs for Employee Compensation news releases by e-mail.

ARCHIVED NEWS RELEASES

• ECI Archives - Complete set of ECI news releases from 1976.
• ECEC Archives - Complete set of ECEC news releases from 1986.

Databases

Database Name	Special Notice	Top Picks	Data Finder	One Screen	Multi- Screen	Tables	Text Files
Pay & Cost of Benefits
Employment Cost Index
Employer Costs for Employee Compensation

More Tools

• Series Report — already know the series identifier for the statistic you want? Use this shortcut to retrieve your data.
• Public data Application Programming Interface (API) — provides access to economic data from all BLS programs. For more information, see the Public Data API information and resources page.
• Compensation Cost Trends Search — allows you to search through all the Employment Cost Index and Employer Costs for Employee Compensation publications that are currently available electronically.

All ECT Databases »

Employment Cost Index

• Current-Dollar Historical Listings
  • NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF) March 2001 - Present
  • SIC basis (TXT) (PDF) September 1975 - December 2005
• Constant-Dollar Historical Listings
  • NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF) March 2001 - Present
  • SIC basis (TXT) (PDF) September 1975 - December 2005
• Continuous Occupational and Industry Series Historical Listings
  • (TXT) (PDF) September 1975 - Present
• Health Benefits Historical Listings
  • (TXT) (PDF) 1982 - Present
• Standard Errors
• Seasonal Factors and Revised Seasonally Adjusted Indexes
• Chart—Changes in wages and salaries and benefit costs, civilian workers
• Corrections to Employment Cost Index data, June 2009 - September 2010

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC)

• Historical Listings
• Compensation percentile estimates 2009 - Present (XLSX)
• NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF) March 2004 - Present
• SIC basis (TXT) (PDF) (quarterly) March 2002 - December 2003
• SIC basis (TXT) (PDF) (annual) March 1986 - March 2001
• News Release Relative Standard Errors (TXT) (PDF) Current quarter
• Supplemental Tables
• NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF) Current quarter
• Relative Standard Errors (TXT) (PDF) Current quarter
• NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF) December 2006 - Present

What Is the Employment Cost Index?

How the Employment Cost Index Is Used

• Compensation Percentiles: A tool for assessing employee compensation
• Explaining the differential growth rates of the ECI and the ECEC (PDF)
• How to use the Employment Cost Index for escalation
• Measuring Trends in the Structure and Levels of Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (PDF)
• National Compensation Measures, Handbook of Methods (HTML) (PDF)
• The Employment Cost Index and the Impact on Medicare Reimbursements (HTML) (PDF)

All NCS Publications (including benefits, compensation costs, and wages) »

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the ECI and ECEC?
2. What is the NCS?
3. What are some differences between the ECI and the ECEC?
4. How reliable are the measurements for the ECEC and the ECI?
5. How are the data for the ECI and ECEC obtained?
6. How is the NCS sample designed?
7. What types of data are available?
8. How can I get assistance with using the ECI and ECEC?
9. How can I stay up to date with the ECI and ECEC?

All ECT FAQs »

• Changes to the ECI series and mapping files — implemented with June 2014 release

Other BLS Resources

• National Compensation Survey—comprehensive measures of occupational hourly wages; compensation cost trends; and benefit incidence and detail plan provisions.
• Benefits—comprehensive data on incidence and provisions of selected employee benefit plans.
• Work Stoppages—monthly and annual data and analysis of major work stoppages involving 1,000 or more workers.
• Occupational Requirements Survey—job-related information regarding the requirements of work.
• Modeled Wage Estimates—annual estimates of average hourly wages for occupations by selected job characteristics and within geographical location.
• Compensation Research and Program Development Group—carries out research that addresses methodological, conceptual, and technical issues of concern to the Office of Compensation and Working Conditions (OCWC), which includes the National Compensation Survey, and the Workplace Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities Programs, and other Bureau programs.
• Consumer Price Indexes—monthly data on changes in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative basket of goods and services.
• Occupational Employment Statistics—data on employment and wages for over 800 occupations and for about 400 nonfarm industries for the nation, plus occupational data for States and metropolitan areas.
• Occupational Outlook Handbook—data for 250 occupations, by nature of the work, working conditions, employment, job outlook and earnings, related occupations, sources of additional information, and training, other qualifications, and advancement.
• Producer Price Indexes—monthly data on changes in the selling prices received by domestic producers of goods and services.
• Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages—comprehensive employment and wage data by industry and geographic area for workers covered by State Unemployment Insurance laws.
• Monthly Labor Review—principal journal of fact, analysis, and research from the Bureau.
• Occupational Classification System Manual—system used by the Bureau to classify workers into occupational categories prior to implementation of the Standard Occupational Classification.
• Standard Occupational Classification—system used by Federal statistical agencies to classify workers into occupational categories for the purpose of collecting, calculating, or disseminating data.

Other Useful Links

• North American Industry Classification System—system used by Federal statistical agencies to classify businesses into industry groups for the purpose of collecting, calculating, or disseminating data.
• Wage and Hour Division—responsible for enforcing federal labor laws including minimum wage and hour standards.

Contacts

The Office of Compensation Levels and Trends, Branch of Survey Information and Publications, will be glad to assist you with questions about any of the components of the National Compensation Survey.

Email: Contact us

Telephone: (202) 691-6199 (Monday - Friday, 8:30 A.M. - 4:30 P.M.)

Information and assistance is also available from any BLS regional office.

Information voice phone: (202) 691-5200 The Federal Relay Service: 1-800-877-8339

Write or Personal Visit

Libraries
Federal Depository Libraries provide free access to government documents. Many of these libraries receive BLS publications. Check with a location near you.