The employment cost index – a broad measure of wage and benefit costs in private industry – rose only 1.2 percent in the 12 months to December after hovering around 3 to 4 percent for most of the preceding two decades.
Other measures of labor compensation show comparable slowdowns and, when coupled with the acceleration  2  BIS Review 46/2010  in productivity, imply the largest four-quarter drop in unit labor costs in decades. This development also should work to restrain price inflation.