Romania posts highest EU y/y increase of hourly labor costs in Q2

While the hourly labor costs in the euro and the EU28 rose by 1 percent and 1.4 percent respectively in the second quarter of this year, compared to the same period of last year, in Romania the costs rose by 12 percent, according to Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union.

Eurostat says the two main components of labor costs are wages & salaries and non-wage costs. In Romania, wages & salaries per hour worked grew by 12 percent and the non-wage component by 11.9 percent.

Aside from Romania, the biggest increases in hourly labor costs for the whole economy were registered in Latvia (9.5 percent), Bulgaria (7.3 percent), and Lithuania (6.6 percent). Decreases of these costs were recorded in Finland (-2 percent), while in Italy and Luxembourg this figure went down by 1.1 percent.

Taking into account the sectors of the local economy, the biggest increases in labor costs were seen in the construction, services and industry, which grew by 14.8 percent, 11.6 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively.

Wages in the private sector went up by 3.7 percent this year, according to a study by professional services firm PwC. In the meantime, the wages in the public sector are set to grow by up to 25 percent, for certain categories, such as doctors.

Read more about

East European Coffee Culture Festival: brewing excitement this weekend

read more

Ovidiu Posirca

Join the discussions about Romania’s economic outlook and strategy for the future at the Foreign Investors Summit 2016 – Where Romania means business – November 1-3, Bucharest.