Hourly wage and salary costs of Bulgarian employers increased by 6.6% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2012, according to data of Eurostat.

At the same time, total labor costs went up by 5.9% as compared to the third quarter of 2011.

The two main components of labor costs calculated by the statistical office of the European Union are wages & salaries and non-wage costs.

Hourly labor costs in the euro area (EA17) rose by 2.0% in the year up to the third quarter of 2012, compared with 1.9% for the second quarter of 2012.

In the EU27, the annual rise was 1.9% up to the third quarter of 2012, the same as the previous quarter.

In the euro area, wages & salaries per hour worked grew by 2.0% and the non-wage component by 1.7% in the year up to the third quarter of 2012, compared with 2.1% and 1.4% respectively for the previous quarter.

In the EU27, hourly wages & salaries rose by 2.0% and the non-wage component by 1.9% in the year up to the third quarter of 2012, compared with 2.0% and 1.6% respectively for the second quarter of 2012.

Hourly labor costs for the business economy in the euro area rose by 2.4% in the year up to the third quarter of 2012, the same as the previous quarter.

In the EU27, the annual rise was also 2.4% up to the third quarter of 2012, compared with 2.5% for the second quarter.

Hourly labor costs for the mainly non-business economy rose by 1.0% in the euro area in the year up to the third quarter of 2012, compared with 0.7% in the second quarter.

In the EU27, the annual rise was 0.9% in the year up to the third quarter of 2012, compared with 0.5% in the previous quarter.

A breakdown of the business economy by economic activity shows that in the euro area hourly labor costs rose by 3.2% in industry, by 2.5% in construction and by 2.0% in services in the year up to the third quarter of 2012.

In the EU27, labor costs per hour grew by 3.2% in industry, by 2.6% in construction and by 2.1% in services.

Among the Member States for which data are available for the third quarter of 2012, the highest annual increases in hourly labor costs for the whole economy were registered in Estonia (+7.6%) and Romania (+7.2%) and the lowest in Cyprus and the Netherlands (both +0.5%). Hourly labor costs decreased in Slovenia (-0.8%).

In the business economy, the highest growth rates in the year up to the third quarter 2012 were observed in Estonia (+7.7%) and Bulgaria (+7.1%), and the lowest in Slovenia (+0.3%), the Netherlands and Slovakia (both +0.5%).

In the mainly non-business economy, the highest increases in the year up to the third quarter 2012 were recorded in Romania (+9.6%) and Estonia (+7.5%), and the largest decreases in Slovenia (-3.2%), Italy (-1.2%), the United Kingdom (-0.9%) and Portugal (-0.7%).