Annual growth in labour costs at 2.0% in euro area

Hourly labour costs rose by 2.0% in the euro area (EA19) and by 2.7 % in the EU28 in the first quarter of 2018, compared with the same quarter of the previous year. In the fourth quarter of 2017, hourly labour costs increased by 1.4% and 2.3% respectively. These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

The two main components of labour costs are wages & salaries and non-wage costs. In the euro area, the cost of wages & salaries per hour worked grew by 1.8% and the non-wage component by 2.6%, in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the same quarter of the previous year. In the fourth quarter of 2017, the annual changes were +1.6% and +0.8% respectively. In the EU28, the cost of hourly wages & salaries rose by 2.7% and the non-wage component by 2.9% in the first quarter of 2018. In the fourth quarter of 2017, annual changes were +2.4% and +1.9% respectively.

Breakdown by economic activity

In the first quarter of 2018 compared with the same quarter of the previous year, hourly labour costs in the euro area rose by 2.0% in industry, by 2.0% in construction, by 2.5% in the services and by 1.2% in the (mainly) non-business economy. In the EU28, labour costs per hour grew by 3.1% in industry, by 3.6 % in construction, by 2.9% in services and by 2.1% in the (mainly) non-business economy.

Member states

In the first quarter of 2018, the highest annual increases in hourly labour costs for the whole economy were registered in Romania (+12.7%), Latvia (+11.2%) and Hungary (+10.3%), while a decrease was recorded in Portugal (-1.5%).