employment cost index

What exactly? An index (1989 = 100) designed to measure the change in the cost of labor, free from the influence of employment shifts among occupations and industries, based on the changes in two things: Wages and salaries, and employer costs for employee benefits.

Source: Labor Department

Frequency: Quarterly

Released when? Last business day of January, April, July and October at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Data for prior quarter.

Market importance: High. Timely. Almost always moves markets. Generally considered the most important leading inflation indicator available.

Other notes: The headline number is the percent change from the prior month, but we also graph the year-on-year change. That way you can see the rate at which employment costs are increasing or decreasing.