The growth in hourly labour costs (comprising wage and non-wage costs paid by employers) slowed down to 3.4% y/y in the second quarter of 2013 from 4.7% y/y in Q1, according to preliminary calendar-adjusted data by the statistics office. Non-wage costs rose 4.7% y/y, thus once again outpacing the increase in wage expenses, which climbed 3.2% y/y.
In quarterly terms, the seasonally adjusted average costs of employers in Bulgaria inched up 0.9%, with non-wage labour expenses advancing by 1.2% q/q and wage expenses - by 0.9% q/q.
Labour costs in industry ticked up 0.2% q/q, outpaced by the 0.7% quarterly increase recorded in the services sector. Employment in education, construction and retail sales was 2.5% more expensive in Q2 than in the previous quarter. On the other hand, labour costs in real state fell 5.1% q/q, followed by a quarterly decline of 4.7% in the culture and entertainment sectors.
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