New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that average earnings increased again in the third quarter of this year due to a number of factors, including a stable job vacancy rate for the past 18 months as well as annual employment growth of 3.7%.
The CSO's Earnings and Labour costs preliminary estimates for July, August, and September show average weekly earnings were €955.49, up 5.3% compared with average weeking earnings of €907.10 in the third quarter of last year.
Today's CSO figures show that average hourly earnings rose by 4.7% to €29.14 in the third quarter of 2024, from €27.84 in the third quarter of 2023.
Over the five years, average hourly earnings have increased by 23.8% from €23.54 to €29.14.
The CSO also noted that average weekly paid hours were 32.8, an increase of 0.6% on the 32.6 hours during the same time in 2023.
Average weekly earnings rose across all 13 sectors in the year to the third quarter, the CSO said.
The largest annual percentage increase in average weekly earnings was 8.7% in the Information & Communication sector, with the second largest increase of 7.7% seen in the Transportation & Storage sector.
Meanwhile, average hourly other labour costs grew by 6.9% to €4.98 in the third quarter, from €4.66 the same time last year.
The highest averages for hourly total labour costs were €58.64 in Information & Communication, and €49.69 in Education.
Today's figures also show that the job vacancy rate at the end of September was 1.2%, remaining unchanged from the same time last year, but lower than the 1.3% recorded at the end of June this year.
The Public Administration & Defence sector had the highest job vacancy rate at 3.3%, followed by 2.5% in the Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities sector.
