{"id":27850,"date":"2023-04-28T18:52:19","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T18:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/us-labor-costs-increase\/"},"modified":"2023-04-28T18:53:22","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T18:53:22","slug":"us-labor-costs-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/us-labor-costs-increase\/","title":{"rendered":"US labor costs increase solidly in first quarter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) &#8211;     U.S. labor costs increased solidly in the first quarter as strong wage gains persisted amid a tight labor market, suggesting inflation could remain elevated for a while.<\/p>\n<p>The Employment Cost Index, the broadest measure of labor costs, rose 1.2% last quarter after increasing 1.1% in the October-December period, the Labor Department said on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the ECI rising 1.1%. Labor costs increased 4.8% on a year-on-year basis after advancing 5.1% in the fourth quarter. <\/p>\n<p>The ECI is widely viewed by policymakers and economists as one of the better measures of labor market slack and a predictor of core inflation, because it adjusts for composition and job-quality changes. <\/p>\n<p>The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by another 25 basis points next week, potentially the last hike in the U.S. central bank&#8217;s fastest monetary policy tightening cycle since the 1980s. The Fed has increased its policy rate by 475 basis points since March of last year from the near-zero level to the current 4.75%-5.00% range.<\/p>\n<p>Though annual growth in average hourly earnings in the Labor Department&#8217;s monthly employment report is slowing, the Atlanta Fed&#8217;s wage tracker remains elevated. The Fed&#8217;s &#8220;Beige Book&#8221; report last week noted that &#8220;wages have shown some moderation but remain elevated.&#8221; There were 1.7 job openings for every unemployment person in February.<\/p>\n<p>Wages and salaries increased 1.2% last quarter after rising by the same margin in the fourth quarter. They were up 5.0% year-on-year after rising 5.1% in the prior quarter. <\/p>\n<p>Private sector wages increased 1.2%, matching the fourth quarter&#8217;s gain. They advanced 5.1% year-on-year. <\/p>\n<p>State and local government wages climbed 0.9% after rising 1.1% in the prior quarter. They rose 4.7% year-on-year.<\/p>\n<p>Inflation-adjusted wages for all workers were unchanged on a year-on-year basis after declining 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Benefits increased 1.2% last quarter after rising 1.0% in the October-December period. They increased 4.5% year-on-year.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p> (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/us-labor-costs-increase\/file-photo-new-homes-under-construction-in-san-marcos-california-3\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3R0NJ-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3R0NJ-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) &#8211; U.S. labor costs increased solidly in the first quarter as strong wage gains persisted amid a tight labor market, suggesting inflation could remain elevated for a while. The Employment Cost Index, the broadest measure of labor costs, rose 1.2% last quarter after increasing 1.1% in the October-December period, the Labor Department said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":27851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1213],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-27850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-business","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3R0NJ-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27852,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27850\/revisions\/27852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}