Average weekly earnings in Ireland up 3.9 pct to 800 euros in Q1

Source: Xinhua | 2020-06-10

Average weekly earnings in Ireland increased by 3.9 percent to 801.83 euros (906 U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of this year when compared with the same period of last year, according to the preliminary figures released by the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Tuesday.

The CSO figures showed the average hourly earnings in the country also increased by 3.2 percent to 24.81 euros in Q1 2020 when compared with a year ago while the average hourly total labor costs witnessed a year-on-year increase of 3.1 percent to 28.6 euros.

Commenting on the figures, CSO statistician Louise Egan said: "The impact of the pandemic on earnings and labor costs for Q1 2020 is minimal as a result, as most sectors were unaffected for 11 weeks of the quarter, with some sectors unaffected for the entirety of the quarter."

Ireland reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19 at the very end of February and did not announce a complete lockdown across the country until March 27.

Analysts here believe that the earnings in Ireland could see a drastic drop in the second quarter of this year as an estimated 600,000 people at the peak time during the COVID-19 crisis claimed to have lost their jobs and had to live on the state support income, according to the Irish Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. (1 euro = 1.13 U.S. dollars)