BUCHAREST (Romania), March 5 (SeeNews) – Romania's seasonally adjusted hourly labour costs rose by 8.69% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2020 and were 2.61% higher over the third quarter, the statistical board, INS, announced on Friday.
On an annual comparison basis, the hourly labour costs increased in most sectors of economic activity in the fourth quarter of 2020.
The highest increases of the adjusted hourly labour cost were found in arts, entertainment and recreation (22.25%), financial and insurance activities (14.09%), information and communication (11.95%), respectively in human health and social work activities (11.73%).
Compared to the analysed period, the decrease of the hourly labour cost was only noticed in accommodation and food service activities (-3.82%), in which the economic units were strongly affected by the suspending/ceasing of their related activities, by decreasing of the hours actually worked in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also by reducing their direct costs, caused by technical unemployment or lower receipts during the state of alert.
Compared to the previous quarter, the most significant increases of the adjusted hourly labour cost in the last quarter of 2020 were found in arts, entertainment and recreation (14.54%), accommodation and food service activities1 (14.06%), construction (10.56%) and real estate activities (10.04%)
The most significant decrease of the quarterly adjusted hourly labour cost was registered in education (-27.15%), determined by the time actually worked increase - a phenomenon characteristic for the current quarter determined by the starting of the new school year.