Annual growth in labour costs at 2.6% in euro area (Third quarter of 2019)

Hourly labour costs rose by 2.6% in the euro area (EA19) and by 3.1% in the EU28 in the third quarter of 2019, compared with the same quarter of the previous year. In the second quarter of 2019, hourly labour costs increased by 2.8% and 3.2% 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 both wages & salaries per hour worked and the non-wage component grew by 2.6% in the third quarter of 2019 compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

In the second quarter of 2019, the annual changes were +2.8% and +2.9% respectively. In the EU28, the costs of hourly wages & salaries rose by 3.2% and the non-wage component rose by 2.7% in the third quarter of 2019. In the second quarter of 2019, annual changes were +3.3% and +3.0% respectively.

Breakdown by economic activity

In the third quarter of 2019 compared with the same quarter of the previous year, hourly labour costs in the euro area rose by 2.9% in industry, by 2.3% in construction, by 2.5% in services and by 2.6% in the (mainly) nonbusiness economy. In the EU28, labour costs per hour grew by 3.3% in industry, by 3.2% in construction, by 3.1% in services and by 2.9% in the (mainly) non-business economy.

Member States

In the third quarter of 2019, the highest annual increases in hourly labour costs for the whole economy were registered in Romania (+13.2%) and Bulgaria (+10.0%) while the lowest increases were recorded in Luxembourg (0.3%) and Finland (0.4%)