Link Securities | The National Statistics Institute (INE) published yesterday that the labour cost per hour worked measured by the Harmonised Labour Cost Index (HLCI), keeping the structure by branch of activity constant, increased by 4.5% in 1Q2024 compared to 1Q2023, in seasonally and calendar-adjusted figures. In unadjusted data, the year-on-year variation in the hourly cost was 7.5%.
In turn, wage costs grew 4.2% year-on-year in 1Q2024 in seasonally and calendar adjusted data. This increase was almost half a percentage point lower than that of total costs. Other costs increased by 5.6%, more than one percentage point higher than total costs.
The activities with the highest year-on-year rates of labour cost in 1Q2024, in seasonally and calendar-adjusted data, were Information and communications (7.2%), Other services (6.7%) and Professional, scientific and technical activities (6.3%). Conversely, labour costs fell in Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (9.8%) and recorded the smallest increases in Real estate activities (0.6%) and Mining and quarrying (1.6%).
