Malta's construction industry registered the highest rise in hourly wage costs across all sectors in the year up to last September, with an increase of four per cent, while wages in manufacturing rose by 3.8 per cent, according to the latest Eurostat survey.

On the other hand, workers in the services industry saw their pay go up by 2.4 per cent.

Malta's total hourly labour costs last September registered an increase of 2.8 per cent, one of the lowest in the euro area. Lower labour cost increases were only registered in Germany at 2.5 per cent.

This was established when taking into consideration all the costs related to labour in the EU in the past 12 months, which include wages, salaries and non-wage costs such as social contributions.

On the other side of the scale, new members Bulgaria and Romania registered a dramatic increase in their wage bills, with a staggering 19.4 and 21.2 per cent respectively. Eurostat said that in the euro area, wages and salaries grew by an average of 3.8 per cent in the year up to the third quarter of 2008 and non-wage costs by 4.4 per cent, compared with 2.7 per cent and 2.8 per cent respectively for the second quarter of 2008.

The breakdown by economic activity shows that in the euro area hourly labour costs rose at an annual rate of 3.8 per cent in industry, 4.3 per cent in construction and four per cent in services up to the third quarter of 2008.