Greece - Only Eurozone State To Record Decline in Labour Costs in 2008-2012

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Average hourly labour costs fell by 11.2 pct in Greece in the period 2008-2012, Eurostat said on Wednesday. The EU executive's statistics service, in a report published here, said that Greece was the only Eurozone member-state to record a decline in average hourly labour costs in that period. The hourly labour cost in Greece was 16.7 euros in 2008, 17.1 euros in2010 and 14.9 euros in 2012, ranking the country fifth among Eurozone member-states with the lowest hourly labour costs in 2012.

Slovakia (8.3 euros/hour), Estonia (8.4), Portugal (12.2), Malta (12.3), Slovenia and Greece (14.9 each) recorded the lowest labour costs in 2012. Labour costs are made up of wages and salaries and non-wage costs such as employers' social contributions.

In 2012, average hourly labour costs in the whole economy (excluding agriculture and public administration) were estimated to be 23.4 euros in the EU-27 and 28.0 euros in the euro area. However, this average masks significant differences between EU Member States, with hourly labour costs ranging from 3.7 euros in Bulgaria, 4.4 in Romania, 5.8 in Lithuania and 6.0 in Latvia, to 39.0 in Sweden, 38.1 in Denmark, 37.2 in Belgium, 34.6 in Luxembourg and 34.2 euros in France.

Within the business economy, labour costs per hour were highest in industry (24.2 in the EU27 and 30.3 euros in the euro area), followed by services (23.7 and 27.6 euros respectively) and construction (21.0 and 24.3 euros). In the mainly non-business economy, labour costs per hour were 22.9 euros in the EU27 and 27.2 in the euro area.

Labour costs are made up of wages & salaries and non-wage costs such as employers' social contributions. The share of non-wage costs in the whole economy was 23.7% in the EU27 and 26.1% in the euro area, varying between 8.2% in Malta and 33.6% in France. (AMNA)