BLS Introduces New Employment Cost Indexes for 14 Metropolitan Areas [24 September 2008] by Albert E. Schwenk: “This article presents a first look at new estimates from the National Compensation Survey (NCS): Employment Cost Index (ECI) 12-month change in total compensation and in wages and salaries for private industry for 14 selected metropolitan areas. The article also provides a description of how the areas were selected and an overview of what the data show.”