Preliminary data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI) for the third quarter of 2019 indicate that the total hourly labor cost rose by 10.0% compared to the third quarter of 2018. The total hourly labor cost grew by 8.3% in industry, by 10.5% in services, and by 10.1% in construction, the National Statistical Institute said in a press release.

The breakdown by economic activities showed that the highest annual growth in total labor costs was recorded in ‘Real estate activities’ – 15.0%, ‘Other service activities’ – 14.0%, and ‘Education’ – 12.8%.

In the structure of the total labor costs, the wages and salaries costs per hour grew by 9.7% year-on-year, while the other (non-wage) costs rose by 11.2%. Among the economic activities, the growth rate of wages and salaries component ranged from 15.1% in ‘Other service activities’ to 2.2% in ‘Mining and quarrying’ year-on-year.