Hourly labour costs rose by 2.2% in the euro area (EA19) and by 2.6% in the EU28 in the second quarter of 2018, compared with the same quarter of the previous year. In the first quarter of 2018, hourly labour costs increased by 2.1% and 2.8% 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 1.9% and the non-wage component by 2.9 % in the second quarter of 2018 compared with the same quarter of the previous year. In the first quarter of 2018, the annual changes were +1.8 % and +2.8 % respectively. In the EU28, both the costs of hourly wages & salaries and the non-wage component rose by 2.6 % in the second quarter of 2018. In the first quarter of 2018, annual changes were +2.7 % and +3.1 % respectively.
Breakdown by economic activity
In the second quarter of 2018 compared with the same quarter of the previous year, hourly labour costs in the euro area rose by 2.2 % in industry, by 2.7 % in construction, by 2.5% in the services and by 1.5 % in the (mainly) non- business economy. In the EU28, labour costs per hour grew by 2.8 % in industry, by 4.1 % in construction, by 2.7 % in services and by 2.2 % in the (mainly) non-business economy.
Member States
In the second quarter of 2018, the highest annual increases in hourly labour costs for the whole economy were registered in Romania (+15.6 %), Latvia (+11.7 %) and Hungary (+10.2 %), while the lowest annual increases in hourly labour costs were recorded in Luxembourg (+0.6 %), Spain (+0.7 %) and the Netherlands (+0.9 %).
