Hourly Wage Rates in Ireland Rise by 5%: Eurostat Report

Hourly wage rates across the Irish economy rose by 5% in the year to the end of June, slightly higher than the eurozone average, according to the latest figures from the European Union’s statistics office. Eurostat.

Broader labor costs, which include social security contributions and employment taxes, are reported to have risen by 8.4% in Ireland over 12 months.

There were large differences between economic sectors, with wages in the business sector increasing by 4.3 percent and in the service sector by 4.0 percent, and in manufacturing by 6.7 percent, which is well above the Eurozone average of 4.0 percent. in this industry.

Hungary had the fastest rate of increase in hourly wages in the EU by the end of the second quarter of this year, with wages rising by an average of 17.3 percent across the economy. Malta had the lowest growth rate at just 2.1 percent.

The average wage growth rate in the euro area as a whole was 4.6 percent and 5.1 percent in the European Union as a whole.

The mining and quarrying sector saw the largest increase in wage rates by a wide margin, with average hourly wages rising by 12 percent across 27 member states.

Growth in the information and technology sector remained slightly above the EU average, despite uncertainty in the industry following the pandemic and high-profile layoffs at some of the industry’s biggest companies.

[ Irish households increase their savings as wage rises outpace inflation ]

Average wage growth in Ireland has been below the rate of inflation over the period. According to the data of the Central Bureau of Statistics, the growth of consumer prices increased by 6.1% until June, but reached a peak of 9.2% in October, which was especially determined by a rapid increase in electricity and gas prices.

Wage growth is expected to moderate overall if inflation continues to decline for the rest of the year, as expected.

Overall, employment across the EU rose to 75.4 percent in the second quarter, which is 0.1 percent higher than in the first three months of the year. Slovenia, Portugal and Latvia had the strongest growth, and Ireland among the other 17 member states.

Around 3.1 million unemployed people are reported to have changed jobs across the EU in the first six months of the year.

2023-09-15 13:15:32
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