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EU hourly labor costs rise in Q2 2015: Eurostat

Xinhua, September 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

Hourly labor costs rose both in the 19-nation eurozone and in the wider European Union (EU) in the second quarter of 2015, Eurostat, the EU statistical office said on Wednesday.

According to figures released by Eurostat, in the second quarter of this year, hourly labor costs rose by 1.6 percent in the euro area and by 1.9 percent in the 28-member EU compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

However, the annual growth rate of labor costs has slowed down in both the euro area and the EU.

In the first quarter of 2015, hourly labor costs rose by 1.9 percent in the euro area and by 2.3 percent in the EU compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

The two main components of labor costs are wages and salaries, and non-wage costs.

In the euro area, on a yearly basis, wages and salaries per hour worked in the second quarter grew by 1.9 percent and the non-wage component by 0.4 percent.

In the EU, hourly wages and salaries rose by 2.1 percent and the non-wage component by 1.1 percent in the second quarter of 2015.

Among EU member states, the highest annual increases in hourly labor costs for the whole economy were registered in Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia and Lithuania. Decreases were recorded in Greece, Cyprus and Italy. Endit