08 September 2020
Go to release: Earnings and Labour Costs Q1 2020 (Final) Q2 2020 (Preliminary Estimates)
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (08 September 2020) issued Earnings and Labour Costs results in respect of Preliminary estimates for Q2 2020 and Final estimates for Q1 2020.
Louise Egan, Statistician, CSO, explains the impact of COVID-19 on the results presented today:
‘When considering the change in earnings, it should be noted that there may be a compositional effect due to the significant changes in employment in certain sectors. The composition of the labour market in Q2 2020 is very different to the composition of the labour market in previous quarters, including Q2 2019, against which the annual changes are measured, with significantly fewer employments in certain sectors in Q2 2020. The increase in average weekly earnings may be impacted to some degree by those employments that have left a sector having lower average earnings than those employments that remained in the sector in both quarters.’
Explaining the background to the release and outlining the headline results being presented today, Louise Egan continued:
‘The Earnings and Labour Costs quarterly release publishes statistics on average weekly and hourly earnings, hours and labour costs. Government measures put in place in response to COVID-19 related to some or all weeks of Q2 2020 for several sectors.
Across and within economic sectors the impact of the COVID-19 crisis was experienced very differently and efforts were made to analyse data relating to the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS), Pandemic Unemployment Scheme (PUP) and Labour Force Survey (LFS) to account for the level of volatility in the labour market in Q2 2020 together with the increased employment churn in certain sectors for the duration of the quarter.
Preliminary estimates for Q2 2020 show average hourly earnings increased by 7.9% to €25.57 and average weekly paid hours decreased by 1.8% to 32 hours from the same period in 2019. Average weekly earnings were €819.13, an increase of 6.2% from Q2 2019. The job vacancy rate, which measures job vacancies as at the last working day of the quarter, is 0.7%, down from 1.1% at the end of Q2 2019.’
Referring to a separate Labour Market Bulletin Insight Series, also being published by the CSO today (please see the Labour Market Insight Bulletin, Series 2), Louise Egan continued:
Given the difficulties in capturing the compositional effects and volatility in the labour market in Q2 2020, analysis of administrative data sources is presented in this bulletin to provide further insight into the change in trends for employment and earnings evident from Q1 2020 to Q2 2020.
Key findings from the bulletin include a reduction of 13.5% in the number of active employments in Q2 2020 when compared to Q1 2020. The sectors showing the largest percentage reduction in employments from Q1 to Q2 2020 were the Accommodation and Food services sector (-61.2%) and the Arts, Entertainment, Recreation and Other Service activities sector (-39.3%).
The bulletin also found that average weekly pay (including TWSS where applicable) increased by 2.9% across all employments between Q1 and Q2 2020. The sectors showing the largest quarterly percentage increases in average weekly pay were the Arts, Entertainment, Recreation and Other Service activities sector (14.1%) and the Accommodation and Food services sector (11.6%). The largest quarterly percentage decreases in average weekly pay were seen in the Construction sector (-6.5%) and the Financial, Insurance and Real Estate activities sector (-6.3%).’
Referring to the ongoing reporting difficulties being faced by enterprises due to COVID-19, Louise Egan explained:
‘Preliminary estimates for Q2 2020 have been negatively impacted due to the inability of some businesses to access the data required to respond to the survey questionnaire, submit returns or accurately record the government income support measures.
The sectors particularly impacted by low rates of survey response were Construction, Transportation and Storage, Accommodation and Food Services and Administrative and Support Services. Caution is therefore advised in relation to the Preliminary estimates published today.’ (Please see the updated Technical Note on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Earnings and Labour Costs release for more information.)
For further information contact:
Louise Egan (+353) 21 453 5951
or email earnings@cso.ie
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