BOSTON — Compensation costs for private industry workers in the Boston-Worcester-Providence area rose 2.7 percent in the 12 months ended in September, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. That was below the national increase of 3.4 percent.

The pace also slowed from the previous year's comparable period, when the area posted a 3.3 percent gain, according to Mark J. Maggi, the bureau's regional commissioner. The area covered by the figures spans parts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.

Wages and salaries, the largest part of compensation costs, rose 2.4 percent locally over the same 12 months, compared with 3.1 percent nationwide, the bureau said.

Boston is one of 15 metropolitan areas for which the bureau publishes local compensation cost data, and one of three in the Northeast. Boston's increase trailed the other two: compensation costs rose 3.4 percent in the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden area and 3.1 percent in the New York-Newark area. Wages and salaries rose 3.2 percent in Philadelphia and 2.7 percent in New York.

Among the 15 areas, annual increases in compensation costs ranged from 4.7 percent in Seattle-Tacoma to 2.2 percent in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Seattle also had the largest wage and salary gain, at 4.1 percent, and Minneapolis the smallest, at 2.0 percent.

The bureau said that starting with December figures, the index will use updated employment weights and will no longer include workers' compensation costs. Those figures are scheduled for release Jan. 29, 2027.

This brief was drafted by AI from a public agency or political press release and published by The New England Signal. Why we use AI for stories like this one.