Data published by Eurostat showed that in the 1st quarter hourly labor costs rose by 5.1% per year after an increase by 3.4% per year in the 4th quarter. Economists had expected an increase by 4.9%. Meanwhile, among EU countries hourly labor costs increased by 5.5% per annum.
Eurostat said that in the eurozone, the costs of hourly wages & salaries increased by 5.3% per annum, accelerating compared to the 4th quarter (+3.2%), while the non-wage component rose by 4.5% per annum after an increase of 3.9% in the previous quarter. In the EU, the costs of hourly wages & salaries increased by 5.8% and the non-wage component rose by 4.8%.
Hourly labor costs in the eurozone rose by 5.3% per annum in the (mainly) non-business economy and by 5.0% per annum in the business economy: +4.8% in industry, +5.2% in construction and +5.0% in services.
The report also showed that the highest annual increases in hourly wage costs for the whole economy were recorded in Romania (+16.4%), Bulgaria (+15.8%), Croatia (+15.3%), Poland (+14.1%) and Hungary (+13.7%). Two more EU Member States recorded an increase above 10%, namely: Latvia (+12.7%) and Lithuania (+11.1%).