Labor Costs in Bulgaria Up 6% Q1 2012 Y/Y

In the 1st quarter of 2012, the total hourly labor cost in Bulgaria grew by 4.2% in the industrial sector, by 9.5% in the services one, and by 0.4% in construction. File photo

In the first quarter of 2012, the total hourly labor cost in Bulgaria rose by 6.2% compared to the first quarter of 2011.

These flash figures were released Monday by the Bulgarian National Statistics Institute, NSI.

The total hourly labor cost grew by 4.2% in the industrial sector, by 9.5% in the services one, and by 0.4% in construction.

The breakdown by economic activities shows that the highest annual growths in total labor costs were recorded in 'Other Service Activities' - 17.1%, in 'Administrative and Support Service Activities' - 14.6% and 'Information and Communication' - 14.4%, while the lowest annual growths were registered in 'Construction' and 'Human Health and Social Work Activities' respectively 0.4% and 1.8%. Decrease in total labor costs was observed in 'Real Estate Activities' by 1.0% and 'Arts, Entertainment and Recreation' by 0.8%.

The two main components of labor costs are wages & salaries and non-wage costs.

In the structure of the total labor costs, wages and salaries costs per hour worked grew by 7.1% in comparison with the same period of 2011, while the other (non-wage) costs rose by 2.0%. Among the economic activities in the first quarter of 2012, compared to the first quarter of 2011, the growth rate of wages and salaries component ranged from (-0.7%) in 'Real Estate Activities' to 18.9% in 'Other Service Activities'.

According to recent figures published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, Bulgaria is second among EU Member States by the increase of hourly labor costs in the first quarter of 2012, only behind Estonia.

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