The labour cost per hour worked, measured by the HLCI, keeping the structure by branches of activity constant - increased by 5.3% in the fourth quarter compared with the same period in the previous year, if seasonal and calendar effects are eliminated.
In unadjusted data, the annual variation of the cost per hour was 5.8%.
Annual rate. Percentage
The cost per hour worked increased by 4.3% at an annual rate in data corrected for seasonality and calendar effects. This increase was one point less than the total cost.
Meanwhile, other costs increased by 8.2%, almost three points above the total cost.
Index and annual rates by cost components
The activities with the highest annual rates this quarter, having eliminated seasonal and calendar effects, were Information and communications (8.9%), Professional, scientific and technical activities (8.4%) and Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (7.3%).
The labour cost fell by 3.2% in Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply and recorded the smallest increases in Health and social services activities (2.2 %) and Mining and quarrying industries (2.7 %).
Annual rate. Percentage
The variation in the HCLI between the 4th and 3rd quarter of 2023, eliminating the seasonality and calendar effects, was 1.1%.
Quaterly rate. Percentage
The quarterly labour cost rate, deseasonalised and corrected for calendar effects was 0.9%, two tenths of a percentage point less than the total cost. On the other hand, other costs rose by 1.5%.
Excluding seasonal and calendar adjustment, the quarterly rate was 4.1%, mainly due to the greater weight of extraordinary payments in this quarter compared to the previous one.
Index and quarterly rates by cost components
INE has today updated the HCLI data for the fourth quarter of 2023. All results are available on INEBase.
The Harmonised Labour Cost Index (HLCI) is a quarterly continuous statistical operation whose objective is to provide a common and comparable measure of labour cost per hour worked for the whole of the European Union, allowing the monitoring of the evolution of said labour costs.
Indices with base 2020 are provided for total labour costs, wages and salaries and other costs net of subsidies received for the use of labour factor (includes social contributions payable by employers and non-wage payments). The index for total labour cost is also provided excluding extraordinary payments and delayed payments.
For more information, you can access the methodology and the standardised methodological report.
INE statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Good Practice for European Statistics. More information in Quality in the INE and Code of Good Practices.
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