According to a report released on December 15 by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, the hourly labor costs in the European Union member states (EU-27) rose 3.1 percent in the third quarter of 2009, compared with 4.2 percent for the previous quarter.
The two main components of labor costs are wages and salaries and non-wage costs. In the EU-27, hourly wages and salaries rose by 2.9 percent while the non-wage component increased by 3.6 percent, compared with 4.1 percent increases for both components in the previous quarter.
The breakdown according to sphere of economic activity shows that in the EU-27 labor costs per hour grew by 4.9 percent in industry and by 2.3 percent in both construction and services.