Compare labor cost benchmarks across U.S. industries by tracking payroll growth against industry output and identifying where workforce costs are becoming harder to absorb.
About this labor cost benchmark
Labor cost benchmarking becomes more useful when payroll is read against the operating base available to support it. The Workforce Cost Absorption Benchmark compares year-over-year growth in nominal industry gross output with year-over-year growth in aggregate payroll across six major U.S. sectors.
The spread identifies where workforce costs are expanding faster than industry output and where output growth is absorbing payroll growth. The benchmark uses BEA gross output and BLS aggregate weekly payroll indexes across matched broad industries. For more information, visit our Labor Cost Optimization page.
Q1 2026 labor cost benchmark read
−7.6
percentage points in Construction
widest negative absorption spread
+5.0
percentage points in Information
strongest positive absorption spread
+0.2
percentage points in Manufacturing
closest sector to payroll-output balance
Follow payroll growth against industry output over time to see where workforce costs are becoming harder or easier to absorb.
Compare Q1 2026 labor cost pressure across industries by measuring whether payroll growth is above or below nominal industry output growth.
Separate payroll growth from industry output growth to see which side of the current labor cost benchmark is driving the spread.
