Bulgarian hourly labor cost rises 10.2 pct in Q1

Source: Xinhua | 2020-06-23

The total hourly labor cost in Bulgaria rose by 10.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020, preliminary data from the National Statistical Institute (NSI) showed Monday.

The total hourly labor cost grew by 9 percent in industry, 9.2 percent in services and 8.1 percent in construction, the NSI said.

The breakdown by economic activities showed the highest annual growths in total labor costs were recorded in education (25.9 percent), real estate activities (23.2 percent), and accommodation and food service activities (13.5 percent), the NSI said.

As for the structure of the total labor costs, the wages and salaries costs per hour grew by 10.2 percent from a year earlier, while the other (non-wage) costs rose by 10.3 percent, the NSI said.

"Among the economic activities in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter of 2019, the growth rate of the wages and salaries component ranged from 25.6 percent in education to 3.4 percent in mining and quarrying," the NSI added.

According to the last available annual data, the labor cost per hour in 2018 in Bulgaria was 9.89 BGN (5.67 U.S. dollars).