ZAGREB, 18 March, 2021 - In the fourth quarter of 2020, hourly labour costs rose in the EU and euro area at rates that were almost twice as high as in the previous quarter, while Croatia was again among the countries that recorded declines, a Eurostat report shows.
In the 27-member EU, hourly labour costs increased by 3.3% in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared with the same period in 2019. In the third quarter, they increased by 1.8%.
At the same time, hourly labour costs in the euro area were 3.0% higher than in the last quarter of 2019, following a 1.6% increase in the third quarter.
The higher labour costs reflected a rise in the costs of hourly wages and salaries, while the non-wage component moderated the growth in hourly labour costs, in particular due to the tax reliefs and subsidies granted by EU governments to support enterprises affected by the coronavirus crisis.
In the EU, the costs of hourly wages and salaries increased by +3.7% in Q4 2020, following a 2.4% rise in Q3. In the euro area, the costs of wages and salaries per hour worked grew by +3.5%, after a 2.2% increase in the third quarter.
In the EU, in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared with the same quarter of the previous year, the economic activities that recorded the highest increases in wage and salary costs were "Arts, entertainment and recreation" (+11.0%) and "Accommodation and food service activities" (+10.2%)
The non-wage component increased by 1.8% in the EU and by 1.5% in the euro area, following stagnation in the previous quarter.
The largest increases in hourly labour costs were recorded in Austria (+11.6%) and Bulgaria (+10.0%), while the lowest increases were observed in Hungary (+0.7%) and France (+0.3%).
Croatia, along with Ireland, Malta and Finland, had lower hourly labour costs in the fourth quarter of 2020 than in the same period in 2019. Ireland observed the largest decrease in hourly labour costs, of 4.8%.
in Croatia, hourly labour costs in Q4 2020 were 1.1% lower than in Q4 2019, while in Q3 they fell for the first time in four years, by 0.6%. In the fourth quarter, wage and salary costs fell by 0.2% and the non-wage component shrank by 6.3%, the largest decline since Q2 2016. In the third quarter, wage and salary costs rose by 0.3%, while the non-wage component fell by 5.8%.
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