US employment costs rose 0.8% in the third quarter, BLS said

Compensation costs for U.S. civilian workers rose 0.8%, seasonally adjusted, in the three months to September 2026, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday, 30 October, in its Employment Cost Index (ECI) release. Wages and salaries rose 0.7% and benefit costs rose 0.9% in the quarter. The BLS said compensation costs had risen 0.9% in the previous quarter.

Over the 12 months to September, compensation costs for civilian workers rose 3.4%, the BLS said. Wages and salaries rose 3.1% and benefit costs rose 3.9% over the same period. For private industry workers, compensation costs rose 0.8% in the quarter and 3.4% over the year. For state and local government workers, they rose 0.6% in the quarter and 3.5% over the year.

The BLS also publishes an inflation-adjusted view. It said inflation-adjusted wages and salaries for private industry workers fell 0.6% over the 12 months to September, meaning pay rises over that period were smaller than the increase in consumer prices. FiscalHour reported the latest personal income and spending figures on Friday.

The ECI tracks the cost of a fixed set of jobs, so it is less affected by shifts in which kinds of jobs are being filled than average hourly earnings figures. Economists and the Federal Reserve watch it as a measure of labour-cost pressure. The BLS said the next ECI release, for the fourth quarter, is scheduled for 29 January 2027.

This article reports official statistics. It is not investment advice and does not forecast interest rates or markets.