Lower unit labor costs are confirmed by the employment cost index.
But the Employment Cost Index shows that the average value of health benefits rose 18 percent from 1998 to 2008, adjusting for inflation.
After closely tracking the Employment Cost Index for a quarter-century, compensation levels in the All Volunteer Force exploded over the last ten years.
U.S. economic data due for release Friday includes the employment cost index, personal income and outlays and the University of Michigan consumer survey.
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U.S. economic data due for release Friday includes the advance GDP estimate, the employment cost index and the University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey.
The Employment Cost Index, which the Fed chairman watches very closely, rose 0.8% in the third quarter of 1997, the same as the previous quarter.
U.S. economic data due for release Wednesday includes the weekly MBA mortgage applications survey, the employment cost index, and the ISM Chicago business survey.
U.S. economic data due for release Thursday includes the weekly jobless claims report, the Challenger job cuts report, the employment cost index, personal income and outlays, and the ISM Chicago business survey.
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Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta will also ask Congress to limit next year's military pay increase to just 1%, even though the Labor Department's expected Employment Cost index for 2014 is higher.
The Pentagon has calculated that the Labor Department's 2014 Employment Cost Index is expected to be above 1%, but wants to still reduce pay because of "budget uncertainties, " a government official told CNN.
The employment cost index, another measure of wage pressure which is available only up to the end of September, shows annual growth of 3.7% in the year to the third quarter in the fully employed mid-west, up from 2.8% a year earlier.
The employment-cost index rose by just 2.1% in the year to the first quarter, the least since records began in 1982.
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