Hourly labour costs in the euro area (EA16) rose by 0.8% in the year up to the third quarter of 2010, compared with 1.6% for the previous quarter. This is the lowest increase registered since the start of the series in 2000. In the EU27, the annual rise was 1.2% up to the third quarter of 2010, compared with 1.5% for the previous quarter.

The two main components of labour costs are wages & salaries and non-wage costs. In the euro area, wages & salaries per hour worked grew by 0.7% in the year up to the third quarter of 2010, and the non-wage component by 1.2%, compared with 1.5% and 1.9% respectively for the second quarter of 2010.

In the EU27, hourly wages & salaries rose by 1.2% and the non-wage component by 1.1% in the year up to the third quarter of 2010, compared with 1.6% for both components in the previous quarter. The breakdown by economic activity shows that in the euro area hourly labour costs rose by 0.3% in industry, 0.6% in construction and 1.1% in services in the year up to the third quarter of 2010. In the EU27, labour costs per hour grew by 0.7% in industry, 0.4% in construction and 1.5% in services.

Member States – Among the Member States for which data was available for the third quarter of 2010, the highest annual increases in hourly labour costs were registered in Bulgaria (+10.2%), Romania (+6.3%) and the Czech Republic (+5.6%), Malta stood at 1.5%. The largest annual decreases were observed in Greece (-6.6%), Lithuania (-1.7%) and the Netherlands (-1.3%).

These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

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