The cost to businesses of employing one worker slowed in the year 2009 to a record low pace, reported the US Department of Labor earlier today. This data has been available since 1982, and the 2009 index of 1.5% is the lowest rate ever observed in the United States. Benefits and wages across the country both rose at new low paces, around 1.5% each. The employment-costs index (ECI) did rise somewhat in the fourth quarter of 2009, allowing some officials to hope that it was a sign of better times to come. However, the overall trend has still been a downward trend for the past 3 years, unemployment remains high, and some officials fear that the slow rate of wage increase could mean disinflation, or even deflation.
See "Employment costs at record low pace in '09", Greg Robb, Market Watch, January 28, 2010