Eurozone hourly labor costs rose 2.4% yoy in Q1, accelerated from 2.3% yoy in Q4, but missed expectation of 2.6% yoy. On of the main components, wages & salaries per hour rose 2.5% yoy, accelerated from 2.3%. That’s also the highest rise since record started in 2010. Another one, no-wage component rose 2.2% yoy, slowed from 2.4% yoy.
Breaking down by economic activity, hourly labour costs rose by 2.5% in industry, by 2.3% in construction, by 2.4% in services and by 2.5% in the (mainly) non-business economy.
EU28 hourly costs rose 2.6% yoy, slowed down from 2.8% yoy. Among the member states, the highest annual increases in hourly labour costs for the whole economy were registered in Romania (16.3%) and Bulgaria (12.9%), while the only decrease was recorded in Greece (-0.2%).
