Preliminary figures from the Central Statistics Office show that average weekly earnings rose to €900.26 in the fourth quarter of 2022, an increase of 4.2% compared with €863.70 in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Today's CSO figures show that average hourly earnings rose by 5.5% to €27.72 in the last quarter of 2022 from €26.27 the same time the previous year.
In the five years to the fourth quarter of 2022, average weekly earnings rose by 23%.
The CSO said that average weekly paid hours reached 32.5 in the three months from October to December last year, down by 1.2% from the 32.9 hours during the same three month period in 2021.
The highest averages for hourly total labour costs were €50.69 in the Information & Communication sector and and €47.36 in the Education sector.
On the other end of the scale, the lowest averages for hourly total labour costs were €16.95 in Accommodation & Food Services and €23.44 in Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services.
The CSO noted that the largest annual percentage increase in average weekly earnings was 10.5% in the Public Administration & Defence sector, which includes a pay rise and backdated pay for public servants as a result of a new public service pay agreement.
Meanwhile, average hourly other labour costs increased by 38.4% across all economic sectors to €4.54 from €3.28.
The CSO said this was mainly due to the ending of the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) last May.
EWSS payments were recorded as subsidies and refunds received and were deducted from other labour costs from the first quarter of 2020 to the second quarter of 2022.
Today's CSO figures also reveal that the job vacancy rate in the fourth quarter of 2022 was 1.3%, down from 1.6% at the end of the third quarter and up from 0.9% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2019.
The Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities sector had the highest job vacancy rate at 3.1, followed by 2.6% in the Financial, Insurance & Real Estate Activities.
