ECEC Release Briefing: Business costs through June 2023

Key takeaways

• There was a slight downward tendency in costs of compensation for flexible work between March 2023 and June 2023, with decreases outnumbering increases.
• The most widespread and largest cost increases were concentrated in hospitality roles.
• Looking by region, the biggest metropolises tended to see the broadest increases in costs.

Transactions on the Instawork platform track the wages paid to hourly workers and the total cost of their shifts to local businesses. This briefing focuses on costs to businesses for dozens of occupations in regions across the United States, in parallel with the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data used in this briefing may include data on future shifts that have been booked on the Instawork platform but have not yet taken place.

There has been a slight downward tendency in costs of compensation for flexible work between March 2023 and June 2023. Roles in hospitality have led the way with some of the most widespread increases in costs, at least geographically. The most uniform increases have been for dishwasher and line cook shifts. There is still upward pressure on costs for custodial and higher-skill warehouse roles, too.

Costs tended to increase most in the biggest metropolitan areas, with the exception of Houston. Some of these areas are regaining population lost during the Covid-19 pandemic. This reverse migration can especially tighten the labor markets in leisure and hospitality, which have not fully recovered from the pandemic in many metros.

Here are the biggest increases in costs from March 2023 to June 2023 by role and region:

Here are shares of roles where business costs increased in major metropolitan areas:

Here are the shares of regions where business costs rose for a selection of roles:

We will continue to track these changes in business costs in the quarters to come. We welcome your suggestions for additions to this briefing.

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