U.S. Employment Costs Climb in 2021 by Most in Two Decades

U.S. employment costs rose at a robust pace for a second-straight quarter, wrapping up the strongest year of labor inflation in two decades as businesses competed for a limited supply of workers.

The employment cost index, a broad gauge of wages and benefits, advanced 1% in the fourth quarter, according to Labor Department figures released Friday. That followed a 1.3% advance seen in the third quarter, which was the strongest quarterly increase in comparable data back to 2001.

Compared with a year earlier, the ECI jumped 4%, the most in two decades.

Compensation gains last quarter were broad-based ...