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The National Compensation Survey (NCS) is used to produce labor cost changes through the Employment Cost Index (ECI) and the average costs per hour worked through the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC). The NCS also provides estimates on the incidence and provisions of benefits by the percentage of workers with access to and participating in employer-sponsored benefit plans through the Employee Benefits in the United States. The survey covers a broad range of benefits including holidays and vacations, sick leave, health and life insurance, and retirement plans. Benefit plan details of employer-provided health and retirement plan provisions are also available.
The latest ECI data can be accessed from the:
In some circumstances, BLS can provide estimates not available through NCS publications. When requests for unpublished data are received, they are evaluated and processed based on resource availability and the complexity of the request. The NCS is not designed to produce estimates for individual states. All tabulations of data are reviewed for reliability and confidentiality prior to release, which may limit the data provided. The NCS can be used to produce estimates by aggregate occupational and industry groups, census regions and divisions, the fifteen largest combined statistical areas and metropolitan statistical areas, and by various characteristics (such as bargaining status and time and incentive status).
When making a data request, users should provide a detailed explanation of the scope that includes ownership (civilian, private, and state and local government), industry group(s) or industry, occupational group(s) or occupation, other data characteristics, and reference period. This detailed explanation will expedite the evaluation. Once we receive the request, we will evaluate it and contact you regarding an expected timeframe for tabulation, review, and clearance. All estimates are evaluated to ensure respondent confidentiality and estimate reliability. In cases where the level of detail requested does not meet publication criteria, BLS staff will contact you with possible alternatives including on-site microdata access. Access to restricted microdata requires a well-defined research proposal that will be thoroughly reviewed as explained on the BLS Restricted Data Access page.
Please review the list of fulfilled requests prior to submitting a tabulation data request. Enter “special data request” in the subject line and indicate the scope of the request. BLS staff evaluating the request will respond and ask for clarification, if necessary. These tabulations can take anywhere from four to eight weeks to produce, review, and fulfill.
Examples of previously fulfilled requests are listed below, in order to demonstrate the level of detail that can be provided outside of the ECI publications. All data on this page are unpublished except by special request. Data requests based on Employee Benefits and Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) publications are also available.
To sort these tables by a different column, click on the column header.