MW: Employment costs rise at slowest pace on record in 2008
U.S. employment costs rose at the slowest pace in at least 26 years in 2008, the Labor Department reported Friday, a sign that rising unemployment was keeping a lid on wages and benefits. Employment costs increased 0.5% in the final three months of the year, down from 0.7% in the third quarter. For the entire year, employment costs increased 2.6%, the lowest since the government began tracking the data in 1982. In the third quarter, wages and salaries for civilian workers increased 0.5%, the slowest in four years. Benefit costs increased 0.4%. For the entire year, wages and salaries for civilian workers increased 2.7% and benefit costs rose 2.2%.
