Eurozone hourly labor costs rose at a faster pace of 1.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, following a 1.3 percent increase in the fourth quarter of 2012, Eurostat reported Monday.
The two main components of labor costs are wages and salaries and non-wage costs.
The annual increase in wages and salaries per hour worked accelerated to 1.7 percent from 1.4 percent. Likewise, the non-wage component gained 1.4 percent compared to 0.9 percent in the prior quarter.
The breakdown of data showed that hourly labor costs rose by 3.3 percent in industry, 1.8 percent in construction, 1.3 percent in services and 0.9 percent in the mainly non-business economy.
In the EU27, the annual rise was 1.9 percent in the first quarter, which was also faster than the 1.3 percent increase logged in the previous quarter.
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