We also incorporated Economy.com's business cost index, which looks at labor, tax, energy and office space costs and its living cost index, which factors in housing, transportation, food and other household expenditures.

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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.

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Lower unit labor costs are confirmed by the employment cost index.

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