Employee compensation growth has slightly cooled again, according to new data released today, suggesting wage growth may have peaked since its record jump in mid-2022.

Labor compensation costs in the U.S. for private sector workers—including pay and benefits—increased 5.1 percent year-over-year from a 4.4 percent increase a year earlier, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Jan. 31 in its quarterly Employment Cost Index (ECI). That's slowed from the third quarter index, released in October, which found that wage growth grew 5.2 percent year-over-year, and from 5.5 percent year-over-year growth from the second quarter of 2022.

Overall, compensation costs for civilian workers climbed 1 percent in the third quarter. READ MORE