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Impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on Employment Cost Index data for March 2021

This page provides further information on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for the March 2021 Employment Cost Index news release.

Collection mode

The ECI data are collected by BLS field economists contacting establishment respondents. Respondents may provide information through personal visits, phone, email, electronic file transmission, fax, and mail. Field economists have discontinued personal visits and are relying on the other collection methods at this time.

Response rates

Nonresponse may increase because of difficulty reaching survey respondents or selected jobs having no workers for the reference period. See the historical response rates. Response rates were comparable in March 2021 to the December 2020 release.

Table 1. Response rates for usable data eligible for collection
Compensation component	Dec 2019	Mar 2020	Jun 2020	Sep 2020	Dec 2020	Mar 2021
Wages and salaries	86.0%	79.5%	80.0%	81.2%	81.3%	82.4%
Benefits	95.3%	95.9%	95.8%	95.3%	95.6%	96.1%

Measures of reliability

BLS publishes measures of reliability along with not seasonally adjusted 3-month and 12-month percent changes. See Technical Information about Standard Errors for Employment Cost Index Estimates and the database query tools. The percentage of standard errors (3-month percent change) less than or equal to 0.3 are shown below.

Table 2. Percentage of standard errors (3-month percent change) less than or equal to 0.3
Compensation component	Dec 2019	Mar 2020	Jun 2020	Sep 2020	Dec 2020	Mar 2021
Total compensation	99.2%	89.4%	84.8%	96.2%	96.2%	89.4%
Wages and salaries	97.7%	87.1%	79.5%	91.7%	93.9%	84.1%
Benefits	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	92.9%

Last Modified Date: April 30, 2021