Malta's labour costs increase lowest in EU - but three countries see decrease

Hourly labour costs in Malta increased by the lowest rate in the EU in the last quarter of 2010, although there were three countries which actually saw a decline.

Figures issued by Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, show that in the euro area (EA16), the hourly labour costs rose by 1.6% in the year up to the fourth quarter of 2010, compared with 0.9% for the previous quarter. In the EU27, the annual rise was 2.0% up to the fourth quarter of 2010, compared with 1.2% for the previous quarter.
The two main components of labour costs are wages and salaries and non-wage costs.

In the euro area, wages and salaries per hour worked grew by 1.4% in the year up to the fourth quarter of 2010, and the non-wage component by 1.9%, compared with 0.8% and 1.3% respectively for the third quarter of 2010.

In the EU27, hourly wages & salaries rose by 2.1% and the non-wage component by 1.5% in the year up to the fourth quarter of 2010, compared with 1.2% for both components for the third quarter of 2010.

The breakdown by economic activity shows that in the euro area hourly labour costs rose by 1.7% in industry, 1.1% in construction and 1.6% in services in the year up to the fourth quarter of 2010. In the EU27, labour costs per hour grew by 1.9% in industry, 1.0% in construction and 2.2% in services.

In the fourth quarter of 2010, the highest annual increases in hourly labour costs were in Bulgaria (+7.6%) and Romania (+5.4%). There were decreases in Greece (-6.5%), Hungary (-2.3%) and Ireland (-1.2%)

The lowest increases were registered by Malta and Latvia, at 0.3%.