Bulgaria, whose labor costs grew by 11.3% on the year in the fourth quarter, posted the highest increase among member states, EU’s statistics office Eurostat said.
In the EU bloc, labor costs were up 2.4% on the year in the fourth quarter, compared with a 2.9% annual growth in the previous quarter. Hourly wages and salaries rose 2.2% in the fourth quarter, while the non-wages component of labor costs was up 3%.
Annual decreases in hourly labor costs were observed only in Lithuania (-10.8%), Estonia (-5.8%), Latvia (-5.6%) and Slovenia (-3.6%).
Broken down by economic activities, labor costs in the EU grew by 1.9% in industry, 3.1% in constructions and 2.5% in services.
In Romania, labor costs in industry were up 8.3% on the year in the fourth quarter of 2009, while labor costs in constructions and services rose 4.9% and 2.6%, respectively.