The total labour cost had the highest growth in Romania among EU member states in the first quarter of 2018, compared to the same period of 2017, according to Eurostat data.
Hourly labour cost increased by 2.7 percent in Q1 in the EU and by 2 percent in the Eurozone y/y. In Q4 2017, a growth of 2.3 percent was registered in the EU and 1.4 percent in the Eurozone.
The highest growth in Q1 was reported in Romania (12.7 percent), Latvia (11.2 percent) and Hungary (10.3 percent). The only EU state where hourly labour cost decreased in the first quarter of 2017 was Portugal (-1.5 percent).
The growth of workforce costs in Romania is mainly due to the 18.3 percent increase in hourly labour cost in the non-business sector. By economic sectors, hourly labour cost grew by 10.3 percent in services, 19.1 percent in construction and 9.9 percent in industry.