US: Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 0.7% in September

"Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 0.7 percent, seasonally adjusted, for the 3-month period ending in September 2017," the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wrote in its Employment Cost Index report today.

Key highlights:

• Wages and salaries (which make up about 70 percent of compensation costs) increased 0.7 percent.
• Benefits (which make up the remaining 30 percent of compensation) increased 0.8 percent.
• Hurricanes Harvey and Irma had minimal impact on data collection in the September 2017 reference period.