BLS' Employment Compensation and Jobs numbers signal little change in labor market

Linda Barrington, managing director of the Institute for Compensation at Cornell's ILR School, joined America's Radio News Network's Mid-Day Edition to comment on two labor market indicators released back-to-back from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Employment Cost Index (released January 31, 2013) revealed that total employee compensation is only up 1.9 percent from where it was a year ago.

The Employment Situation report (released February 1, 2013) showed unemployment to be holding under 8 percent and upward revisions to the jobs numbers for the last two months.

According to Barrington, employment growth is still not strong enough yet to translate into notable increases in people's paychecks.