In the fourth quarter of 2018, the highest annual increases in hourly labour costs for the whole economy were registered in Romania (+13.1%), Latvia (+11.8%), Portugal (+10.3%), and Lithuania (+10.2%), while the only decrease was recorded in Malta (-0.5%).

This has emerged from a statistics published by Eurostat on Tuesday.

This was not the only quarter in which hourly labour costs decreased in Malta. In Q3, the hourly labour costs in Malta decreased by 0.7%, again the only country in the EU to suffer a decrease.

 Hourly labour costs rose by 2.3% in the euro area and by 2.8% in the EU28 in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared with the same quarter of the previous year. In the third quarter of 2018, hourly labour costs increased by 2.5% and 2.6% respectively.

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 2.3% and the non-wage component by 2.4% in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

 In the third quarter of 2018, the annual changes were +2.3% and +2.9% respectively. In the EU28, the costs of hourly wages & salaries rose by 3.0% and the non-wage component rose by 2.2% in the fourth quarter of 2018. In the third quarter of 2018, annual changes were +2.7% and +2.4% respectively.

 

 In the fourth quarter of 2018 compared with the same quarter of the previous year, hourly labour costs in the euro area rose by 1.9% in industry, by 2.4% in construction, by 2.5% in services and by 2.4% in the (mainly) non-business economy.

In the EU28, labour costs per hour grew by 2.4% in industry, by 2.8% in construction and in services, and by 3.0% in the (mainly) non-business economy.