Contact Information: Contacts: Jennifer Forman Marketing Manager 800-238-9111 x6585 Email Contact or Kam Hashim Boston Communications 617-619-9803 Email Contact
Mitchell Study Identifies High Variance in Labor Rates by State, County, and Metro Area
| Source: Mitchell International
SAN DIEGO, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- October 31, 2006 -- Mitchell International, a leading provider of
information, workflow, and performance management solutions to the
automotive insurance claims and collision repair industries, today
announced that highlights from a labor rate study conducted by its Business
Analytics Group are available in the latest edition of Mitchell's quarterly
Industry Trends Report, which may be downloaded for free at
www.mitchell.com.
Labor costs are computed as the product of labor hours worked and hourly
labor rates, and comprise approximately 45% of the estimated repair cost of
physical damage appraisals, thus play a critical role in collision repair
costs to insurers, total loss determinations, and collision repairer
revenues. The Mitchell study identified a 55% variance in labor rates
between the lowest and highest cost states, and variances up to 34% within
individual states for similar labor types pertaining to automotive
collision repair.
Also of note, an examination of labor rates by telephone area code within
the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA metro area showed that the 707 area
code had labor rates that were consistently 14-15% higher than the
neighboring 510 area code.
Of particular interest to both insurers and collision repairers was the
finding that year-to-date growth in labor rates is 1% higher than last
year, but still behind the national rate of inflation.
"Our study clearly outlines the existence of highly variable labor rates by
state, county and metro area," said Paul Rosenstein, Sr. Director-Business
Analytics at Mitchell. "These rate variations are largely due to local
conditions, such as demand for vehicle repairs, the supply of repair shops
in the local market, and claim-specific factors like insurer guidelines and
complexity of the repair."
The Mitchell Business Analytics group produces comprehensive labor rate
reports providing statistics on Body, Body Structural, Frame, Glass,
Mechanical, and Refinish Labor types, covering minimum, maximum, median,
mean, mode, and standard deviation. Labor rate data in the reports is
organized by state, county, MSA, and area code. The most recent study
sampled a selection of auto physical damage appraisal data from 17
insurance carriers with consistently significant estimating volumes from
2003 through 2006. Only estimates for repairable vehicles were used in the
study.
For more information about, or to purchase a copy of the complete report,
contact Business.Analytics@Mitchell.com.
About Mitchell International
Mitchell International is a leading provider of information and workflow
solutions to the automotive insurance claims industry, serving carriers,
collision repair facilities, and other commercial participants in the
physical damage and auto-related medical claims processes. Mitchell
facilitates millions of electronic transactions between more than 16,000
business partners each month to enhance their productivity, profitability,
and customer satisfaction levels. For more information on Mitchell
International, visit our website at www.mitchell.com.