Latvia, whose labor costs grew by 7% on the year in the first quarter, posted the biggest increase among member states, followed by Estonia (+6.8%), the EU’s statistics office Eurostat said.
Decreases in the hourly labor costs were observed in Cyprus (-6.9%), Croatia (-1.7%), Ireland (-0.2%) and Italy (-0.1%).
In the EU bloc, first quarter labor costs were up 1.2% on the year, compared with a 1.4% annual growth for the previous quarter. Hourly wages and salaries rose 1.7% in the first three months of the year, while the non-wage component of labor costs was down 0.3% on the year.