Data for the fourth quarter of 2013 indicated that the total hourly labour cost has risen by 4.3%

Preliminary data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI) for the fourth quarter of 2013 indicated that the total hourly labour cost has risen by 4.3% compared to the fourth quarter of 2012. The total hourly labour cost grew by 4.4% in industry and by 4.8% in services. In construction the total hourly labour costs rose by 4.2%.

The breakdown by economic activities showed that the highest annual growth in total labour costs were recorded in ‘Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles’ - 12.3%, ‘Mining and quarrying’ - 8.9% and ‘Education’ - 8.4%. The highest decrease in total labour costs was observed in ‘Arts, entertainment and recreation’ by 12.8% and ‘Other service activities’ by 8.8%.

In the structure of the total labour costs, the wages and salaries costs per hour worked have grown by 4.0% in comparison with a year earlier, while the other (non-wage) costs rose by 6.2%. Among the economic activities in the fourth quarter of 2013 compared to the fourth quarter of 2012 the growth rate of wages and salaries component ranged from (-14.3%) in “Arts, entertainment and recreation” to 11.7% in “Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles”.