Preliminary data of the National Statistical Institute(NSI) for the second quarter of 2017 indicate that the total  hourly labour cost grew by 10.6% in industry, by 11.5% in services and by 4.7% in construction. The breakdown by economic activities showed that the highest annual growths in total labour costs were recorded in ‘Real estate activities’ - 16.8%, ‘Administrative and support service activities’ - 16.1%, ‘Professional, scientific and technical activities’ - 14.6%.

The lowest increase in total labour costs was observed in ‘Construction’ by 4.7%, ‘Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply’ by 5.0% and ‘Financial and insurance activities’ - 5.7%. In the structure of the total labour costs, the wages and salaries costs per hour worked grew by 10.7% in comparison with a year earlier, while the other (non-wage) costs rose by 12.4%.

Among the economic activities in the second quarter of 2017 compared to the second quarter of 2016 the growth rate of wages and salaries component ranged from 4.7% in ‘Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply’ to 17.0% in ‘Real estate activities’