In the second quarter of 2020, the job vacancy rate in the euro area and in the European Union (EU) was 1.6%, down from 1.9% in the previous quarter and from 2.3% in the second quarter of 2019, according to figures published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.<\/p>\n
In Cyprus the job vacancy rate was 1.2%, down from 2.0% the previous quarter and 1.7% in the same quarter of 2019.<\/p>\n
In Greece the job vacancy rate was 0.3%, down from 0.4% in the first quarter and 0.7% in the second quarter of 2020.<\/p>\n
In the euro area, the job vacancy rate in the second quarter of 2020 was 1.3% in industry and construction, and 1.7% in services.<\/p>\n
In the EU, the rate was 1.4% in industry and construction, and 1.7% in services.<\/p>\n
Among the Member States for which comparable data are available, the highest job vacancy rates in the second quarter of 2020 were recorded in the Czech Republic (5.4%), Belgium (3.1%) and Austria (2.6%).<\/p>\n
In contrast, the lowest rates were observed in Greece (0.3%), as well as in Ireland, Spain, Poland, Portugal and Romania (all 0.7%).<\/p>\n
Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, the job vacancy rate fell in twenty-five Member States, remained stable in Bulgaria and increased in France (by 0.1 percentage points).<\/p>\n
The largest decreases were registered in Malta (-1.6), Germany (-1.2), Latvia and the Netherlands (both -1.0).<\/p>\n
In the second quarter of 2020, the hourly labour costs rose by 4.2% in the euro area, by 4.1% in the European Union (EU) and decreased by -8.6 in Cyprus and by -2.9% in Greece, compared with the same quarter of the previous year.<\/p>\n
The two main components of labour costs are wages & salaries and non-wage costs.<\/p>\n
In the euro area, the cost of wages & salaries per hour worked grew by 5.2% and the non-wage component grew by 0.8% in the second quarter of 2020 compared with the same quarter of the previous year.<\/p>\n
In the first quarter of 2020, the annual changes were +3.9% for wages & salaries and +3.1% for the non-wage component.<\/p>\n
In the EU, the costs of hourly wages & salaries increased by +5.3% and the non-wage component rose by +0.1% in the second quarter of 2020.<\/p>\n
In the first quarter of 2020, annual changes were +4.1% and +3.3% respectively.<\/p>\n
In both the EU and the euro area, the increase in hourly wage costs indicates that the decrease in the number of hours worked, due to the Covid-19 crisis, was not fully compensated by a matching decrease in wages.<\/p>\n
This increase in hourly wage costs was partly compensated by the moderate increase in the non-wage component, due to tax reliefs and subsidies introduced by EU governments to support enterprises affected by the crisis.<\/p>\n
In the second quarter of 2020 compared with the same quarter of the previous year, hourly labour costs in the euro area rose by 4.3% in the (mainly) non-business economy and by 4.1% in business economy: 4.4% in services, 3.8% in industry and 2.8% in construction.<\/p>\n
In the EU, hourly labour cost grew by 4.3% in the (mainly) non-business economy and by 4.0% in the business economy: 4.3% services, 3.9% in industry and 2.3% in construction.<\/p>\n
(CNA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the second quarter of 2020, the job vacancy rate in the euro area and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n