Compensation costs for private industry workers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA Combined Statistical Area increased by 3.4 percent for the year ending September 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This represents a decrease from the previous year’s annual gain of 4.6 percent. Nationally, compensation costs rose by 3.5 percent during the same period.
Chris Rosenlund, Regional Commissioner, stated that “one year ago, Los Angeles experienced an annual gain of 4.6 percent in compensation costs.” He noted that wages and salaries—the largest component of compensation—also grew at a rate of 3.4 percent locally over the past year, while the national increase was slightly higher at 3.6 percent.
Los Angeles is one of fifteen metropolitan areas across the United States where locality compensation cost data are collected, and one of four such areas in the West region. Among these major metropolitan areas, changes in compensation costs over the past year ranged from a high of 5.7 percent in Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale to a low of 2.1 percent in Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor as of September 2025.
Within western metropolitan areas specifically, Los Angeles’ annual increase was compared to advances ranging from 4.7 percent to 3.1 percent in Phoenix-Mesa, San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, and Seattle-Tacoma. For wages and salaries alone, Los Angeles’ growth was between rates seen elsewhere in the West region’s large cities.
The Employment Cost Index (ECI), which tracks these changes quarterly without being affected by shifts among occupations or industries, provides additional data nationally by industry sector and employee status on its website.
The substate area definitions used for this report follow guidance from Office of Management and Budget Bulletin No. 13-01 issued on February 28, 2013.
The Los Angeles-Long Beach CSA includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura Counties.
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