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Business Leader
Whether your company is looking to negotiate long-term contracts, assess employment costs, identify new markets for your products, or compare your business with others in your industry, we provide you with the detailed statistics you need to make informed decisions.
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Contract Escalation
We provide a variety of information that can be used in contracts to protect organizations against changing costs in the economy. The following guides show how to use BLS data in these contracts.
- The Consumer Price Index Escalation Guide demonstrates how the CPI can be used to escalate or adjust payments for rents, wages, and other obligations that may be affected by changes in the cost of living.
- The Producer Price Index Escalation Guide shows how the PPI can be used to make adjustments in long-term sales and purchasing contracts.
- The Employment Cost Index Escalation Guide demonstrates how the ECI can be used by business organizations as an escalator to adjust wage rates in collective bargaining agreements.
Wages, Costs, and Benefits
To help business leaders assess measures of occupational wages, costs, and benefits in their industry or geographic region, we provide a number of important statistics that impact the business community on an everyday basis.
Wages
A collection of information for wages by area and occupation across BLS programs contains data for each State, region, and the Nation. These statistics can be used for pay-setting purposes and are available for more than 800 occupations across 400 industries. Information is also available for more than 375 metropolitan statistical areas and 34 metropolitan divisions. A wage calculator is also available by type of occupation for over 85 geographical areas and the Nation as a whole.
Costs
The Employment Cost Index (ECI) report provides information on changes in wages, salaries, and benefit costs that affect workers and employers. The ECI provides statistics for all workers, along with separately published statistics for private industry, and State and local government workers.
Average hourly costs for employers are also calculated in the quarterly Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) report, and are available for private industry groups, State and local government, and civilian workers.
To relate worker output to hours of labor input, the BLS produces productivity and cost data by major sector and industry. Detailed information on output per hour and unit labor costs for business, non-farm business, and manufacturing is available in the Productivity and Costs report.
Benefits
Incidence and detailed provisions of benefit plans such as retirement, medical care, life insurance, and disability are also available through the annual Employee Benefits in Private Industry report. Detail is available by occupational groups, union and nonunion status, and full-time and part-time employees for private industry and State and local governments.
New Markets and Products
Consumer Products
To help your company market its products, the Consumer Expenditure Survey provides information on the buying habits of American consumers. This survey contains information on expenditures, income, and consumer unit characteristics.
You can review detailed information about expenditures, like the High-Income Tables, or check out special reports. If you wish to sort the information by characteristics like age, sex, occupation, and product purchased, you can Create Your Own Tables.
If you need the most detailed statistics to analyze the data still further, CD-ROMs are available that include all Public Use Microdata.
International Business
To help you gauge the competitiveness of businesses in the U.S. relative to those in foreign countries, the International Labor Comparisons program provides information like International Comparisons of Hourly Compensation and International Comparisons of Manufacturing Productivity and Unit Labor Cost Trends.
Industry Comparisons
Industry group comparisons can help a business leader understand the marketplace and make informed decisions. Industries at a Glance is a great tool to see the variety of BLS data available for a sector in the economy.
- Coverage includes more than 100 industry groups -- down to the 3-digit level in the NAICS (North American Industry Classification System).
- All tables will be updated as new information becomes available.
- Includes information on wage, price, and employment statistics.
Specific industry information is also available through:
- The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey search tool provides access to data on job openings, hires, and separations. These data serve as demand-side indicators of labor shortages at the national level.
- The Industry Productivity and Costs search tool provides access to annual measures of output per hour and unit labor costs for U.S. industries at the 2-, 3-, 4-, 5- and 6-digit level in the NAICS.
- Information on nonfatal injuries and illnesses includes counts and rates by detailed industry as well as counts and rates of the characteristics of injury and illness cases and the demographics of those involved. Similar information also is available on fatalities.
- To calculate injury and illness incidence rates for your firm and to compare them with averages for your industry, see the Incidence Rate Calculator and Comparison Tool.
- National Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates are available.
