Wages and salaries sum increased in February 2024

Wages and salaries sum grew by 0.9 per cent year-on-year in the private sector in February

The working day adjusted wages and salaries sum was 0.9 per cent higher in the private sector in February than twelve months earlier. The wages and salaries sum in the public sector was 8.3 per cent higher than in the corresponding period one year previously. In the private sector, the seasonally adjusted wages and salaries sum did not change from the month before but increased in the public sector by 0.7 per cent in February.

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Wages and salaries sum grew in almost all main industries in the private sector

The working day adjusted wages and salaries sum grew in February 2024 in all other main industries but decreased in construction compared to February 2023. The working day adjusted wages and salaries sum grew fastest in the industry of financial and insurance (7.4%). The wages and salaries sum increased more moderately in the industries of private health and social work (3.6%), private education (1.9%), other services (1.5%), manufacturing (1.3%) and trade (0.9%) but decreased in the industry of construction (-6.3%).

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The wage and salary index for the whole economy and the private sector was revised considerably more than usual concerning January. The revision was due to a technical error, which caused the wages and salaries sums of the private sector to be at a lower level than normal. The working day adjusted wages and salaries for the whole economy revised 3,1 percentage points and for the private sector 4,3 percentage points in January. The working day adjusted wages and salaries revised most in the industries of construction (6,9 percentage points), other services (4,2 percentage points) and trade (3,3 percentage points).

The factors caused by the variation in the number of weekdays are taken into account in adjustment for working days. This means taking into consideration the lengths of months, different weekdays and holidays. In addition, seasonal variation is eliminated from seasonally adjusted series, on account of which it makes sense to compare observations of two successive months as well.