January 12, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Hourly compensation drops the most in Korea in 1998
Of 29 countries
studied by BLS, Korea had the greatest decline in 1998 in hourly
compensation costs, measured in U.S. dollars, for production workers in
manufacturing—31.4 percent.
[Chart data—TXT]
Other countries besides Korea with a 10 percent or greater decline in
hourly compensation costs in 1998 included Taiwan (10.7 percent) and
Australia (10.0 percent). Hourly compensation for manufacturing production
workers measured in U.S. dollars also fell in 12 additional countries,
including Japan, Canada, and Italy.
Hourly compensation costs in Japan decreased for the third consecutive
year in 1998. In Canada, the drop in hourly compensation costs of 4.7
percent was the largest one-year decline in that country since BLS began
the series in 1975.
In the United Kingdom, hourly compensation costs increased the most of
all the countries studied by BLS—6.2 percent. Hourly compensation in
manufacturing expressed in U.S. dollars also rose in Mexico (2.8 percent),
the U.S. (1.9 percent), France (1.6 percent), and Germany (1.1 percent).
These data are a product of the BLS Foreign
Labor Statistics program. For
additional information, see news release USDL 00-07, International
Comparisons of Hourly Compensation Costs for Production Workers in
Manufacturing, 1998. Note that the
statistics for foreign economies presented here reflect fluctuations in
exchange rates as well as changes in hourly compensation expressed in each
country’s national currency. Measured in national currency, every
country in the analysis except Italy had an increase in hourly
compensation costs for manufacturing production workers in 1998. However,
the dollar appreciated in 1998 against nearly all of the foreign countries
studied, resulting in declines in hourly compensation costs measured in
U.S. dollars in many countries.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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