# Unit Labour Costs & Wages API > Unit labour costs, wages and productivity — the labour-cost side of inflation and competitiveness, on one comparable screen, from the OECD's official productivity statistics as an API, live, no key. Wages, productivity and unit labour costs are bound by a simple identity: unit labour cost growth is roughly wage growth minus productivity growth. When pay rises faster than output per worker, the extra cost has to go somewhere — into prices or into margins — which is why unit labour costs are one of the indicators central banks watch most closely for home-grown (second-round) inflation, and why a country whose unit labour costs run ahead of its trading partners loses competitiveness. The OECD harmonises and seasonally adjusts the figures so they are comparable across economies. This API serves the year-on-year growth of all three: unit labour costs, labour compensation per employee (the clean per-worker wage measure) and labour productivity (GDP per person employed). The board endpoint ranks every economy by unit-labour-cost growth — where labour-cost pressure is building fastest — with wages and productivity alongside. The wages endpoint ranks by wage growth, the gauge of pay pressure. The country endpoint gives one economy's three figures with the wage-minus-productivity decomposition of its unit labour costs. Each reading carries its own quarter and discontinued series are excluded, so the board is genuinely current. The labour-cost / wage-inflation cut — distinct from the realised-inflation feeds, the employment and unemployment boards (counts and rates, not costs), and the generic multi-provider data aggregator. Figures are quarterly year-on-year, in percent. ## Authentication All requests require your oanor API key in the `x-oanor-key` header. Get one at https://www.oanor.com/developer/keys. ```bash curl -H "x-oanor-key: oanor_live_…" "https://api.oanor.com/labourcosts-api/..." ``` ## Pricing - **Free** (Free) — 750 calls/Mo, 2 req/s - **Starter** ($13/Mo) — 15,900 calls/Mo, 6 req/s - **Pro** ($40/Mo) — 82,000 calls/Mo, 16 req/s - **Business** ($89/Mo) — 476,000 calls/Mo, 40 req/s ## Endpoints ### Board #### `GET /v1/board` — Economies ranked by unit-labour-cost growth, with wages and productivity **Parameters:** - `countries_only` (query, optional, string) — Drop aggregate groups (true) Example: `true` **Example:** ```bash curl -H "x-oanor-key: $KEY" \ "https://api.oanor.com/labourcosts-api/v1/board?countries_only=true" ``` **Response:** ```json { "data": { "note": "Economies ranked by year-on-year unit-labour-cost growth (total economy, seasonally adjusted), with wage growth and productivity growth alongside. Unit labour cost growth is roughly wage growth minus productivity growth; rising unit labour costs are one of the clearest signals of home-grown inflation and of lost competitiveness. Each row carries its own quarter; discontinued series excluded. Quarterly year-on-year, cached a few hours.", "board": [ { "code": "TUR", "name": "Türkiye", "quarter": "2025-Q4", "wages_yoy": 40.47, "is_aggregate": false, "productivity_yoy": 3.45, "unit_labour_costs_yoy": 34.73 }, { "code": "HUN", "name": "Hungary", "quarter": "2025-Q4", "wages_yoy": 9.19, "is_aggregate": false, "productivity_yoy": 0.18, "unit_labour_costs_yoy": 9 }, { "code": "CRI", "name": "Costa Rica", "quarter": "2025-Q1", "wages_yoy": 7.62, "is_aggregate": false, "productivity_yoy": 0.74, "unit_labour_costs_yoy": 6.83 }, { "code": "POL", "name": "Poland", "quarter": "2025-Q4", …(truncated, see openapi.json for full schema) ``` ### Wages #### `GET /v1/wages` — Economies ranked by wage growth (compensation per employee) **Parameters:** - `countries_only` (query, optional, string) — Drop aggregate groups (true) Example: `true` **Example:** ```bash curl -H "x-oanor-key: $KEY" \ "https://api.oanor.com/labourcosts-api/v1/wages?countries_only=true" ``` **Response:** ```json { "data": { "note": "Economies ranked by year-on-year growth in labour compensation per employee — the clean per-worker wage measure. Pay growth is the key input central banks watch for second-round inflation; how much of it feeds into costs depends on productivity (shown alongside). Quarterly year-on-year, cached a few hours.", "board": [ { "code": "TUR", "name": "Türkiye", "quarter": "2025-Q4", "wages_yoy": 40.47, "is_aggregate": false, "productivity_yoy": 3.45, "unit_labour_costs_yoy": 34.73 }, { "code": "LTU", "name": "Lithuania", "quarter": "2025-Q4", "wages_yoy": 12.08, "is_aggregate": false, "productivity_yoy": 5.97, "unit_labour_costs_yoy": 5.77 }, { "code": "POL", "name": "Poland", "quarter": "2025-Q4", "wages_yoy": 9.61, "is_aggregate": false, "productivity_yoy": 2.91, "unit_labour_costs_yoy": 6.51 }, { "code": "HUN", "name": "Hungary", "quarter": "2025-Q4", "wages_yoy": 9.19, "is_aggregate": false, "productivity_yoy": 0.18, …(truncated, see openapi.json for full schema) ``` ### Country #### `GET /v1/country` — One economy's unit-labour-cost, wage and productivity growth with the decomposition **Parameters:** - `country` (query, required, string) — ISO-3 code or name Example: `USA` **Example:** ```bash curl -H "x-oanor-key: $KEY" \ "https://api.oanor.com/labourcosts-api/v1/country?country=USA" ``` **Response:** ```json { "data": { "code": "USA", "name": "United States", "note": "One economy's year-on-year unit-labour-cost, wage (compensation per employee) and productivity (GDP per person employed) growth. The decomposition shows the identity: unit labour costs grow roughly as fast as wages grow minus productivity grows. When wages outrun productivity, unit labour costs and inflation pressure rise. Quarterly year-on-year, cached a few hours.", "source": "OECD Productivity & Unit Labour Costs (SDMX)", "quarter": "2025-Q3", "wages_yoy": 3.36, "is_aggregate": false, "decomposition": "unit labour costs ≈ wages − productivity: 3.36% − 1.16% ≈ 2.2% (reported 2.18%)", "productivity_yoy": 1.16, "unit_labour_costs_yoy": 2.18 }, "meta": { "timestamp": "2026-06-12T19:36:31.138Z", "request_id": "41845a32-0566-421c-a417-790d496fc3ef" }, "status": "ok", "message": "Country labour costs retrieved successfully", "success": true } ``` ### Meta #### `GET /v1/meta` — Service metadata **Example:** ```bash curl -H "x-oanor-key: $KEY" \ "https://api.oanor.com/labourcosts-api/v1/meta" ``` **Response:** ```json { "data": { "note": "board and wages take countries_only (true to drop aggregates such as OECD, G20, the euro area). country takes country (ISO-3 code or name, required). meta takes no parameters. Growth figures are year-on-year, in percent. Quarterly data (it lags a quarter or two); a multi-hour protective cache fronts the OECD upstream.", "source": "OECD Productivity & Unit Labour Costs (DF_PDB_ULC_Q: ULCE, LCEMP, GDPEMP) via OECD SDMX API, year-on-year, seasonally adjusted, live, keyless", "service": "labourcosts-api", "economies": 33, "endpoints": { "GET /v1/meta": "This document.", "GET /v1/board": "Economies ranked by unit-labour-cost growth, with wages and productivity (countries_only optional).", "GET /v1/wages": "Economies ranked by wage growth (compensation per employee).", "GET /v1/country": "One economy's unit-labour-cost, wage and productivity growth with the decomposition (country=USA)." }, "description": "Unit labour costs, wages & productivity — the labour-cost side of inflation and competitiveness, live from the OECD (no key). It serves the year-on-year growth of unit labour costs, labour compensation per employee (wages) and labour productivity, bound by the identity that unit labour cost growth is roughly wage growth minus productivity growth. board ranks economies by unit-labour-cost growth with wages and productivity alongside; wages ranks by wage …(truncated, see openapi.json for full schema) ``` --- Marketplace page: https://www.oanor.com/api/labourcosts-api OpenAPI spec: https://www.oanor.com/api/labourcosts-api/openapi.json