Average weekly earnings increase by 1.4% – CSO

Average weekly earnings rose by 1.4% in the final quarter of 2015, according to preliminary estimates from the Central Statistics Office. The annual rise saw the average increase from €702.61 in Q4 2014 to €712.75 in the last quarter.

Meanwhile, revised average weekly earnings were €691.81 in Q3 2015 and showed an increase of 3.1% when compared with the same period in 2014.

However, average hourly earnings fell 0.5% in the last quarter to €21.94, when compared with Q4 2014.

The average number of weekly paid hours for employees Q4 2015 was 32.5, a 1.9% increase on those recorded in Q4 2014.

The CSO data also showed average hourly total labour costs stood at €25.45 in Q4 2015, a fall of 0.4% from the Q4 2014 value of €25.55.

Seasonally adjusted, average weekly earnings in the last quarter were €702.29, an increase of 0.3% from the previous quarter.

The job vacancy rate at the end of last year was 0.8%, an increase from 0.7% at the end of 2014.

The economic sector that saw the highest rise in average weekly earnings increased in 2015 was administrative and support services (+9.9%) – rising from €500.42 to €549.76, while the financial, insurance and real estate sector experienced the largest percentage sectoral decrease -falling 4.3% from €1,076.12 to €1,029.58.

Private sector average weekly earnings showed an increase of 1.1% from €641.99 to €648.99 in the year to Q4 2015, while the public sector (including semi-state) average weekly earnings increased 2.2% from €910.98 to €930.67 in the same period.