WASHINGTON — The employment cost index used to track overall labor costs rose 0.4% during the 12-month period ending in September, after increasing 0.5% at a seasonally adjusted rate during the second quarter of 2010, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday.
The 0.5% gain for the second quarter followed an unrevised 1.7% increase during the previous quarter, which ended in March.
The third-quarter gain was lower than the 0.5% uptick predicted by economists, according to a median estimate from Thomson Reuters.
