All manufacturing sectors maintained a real wage growth, but most of them struggled with employment drops

Wages in November 2023 rose in all 10 sectors monitored monthly, and for a second month they were also higher in real terms than the growth of inflation. However, employers registered fewer employees year-on-year, an employment decline was not registered only in construction and information and communication.

The average nominal monthly wage¹⁾ nominally rose year-on-year in all 10 sectors monitored monthly in November 2023. Its highest growth of over 15% was recorded in food and beverage service activities where wages reached EUR 732. A double-digit increase reached the wages of employees in construction with an average wage of EUR 1 138 , in industry²⁾ to EUR 1 891, in transportation and storage²⁾ to EUR 1 484, in retail trade to EUR 1 177 and in selected market services to EUR 1 506. Wage growth in the other selected sectors ranged from 7.6% in information and communication with an average wage of EUR 2 765, to 9.3% in sales and repair of motor vehicles, where an employee earned an average of EUR 1 585.

In November, wages again defied inflation. This is the second month in which real wage growth was reported by all monitored sectors. Its most significant increase of 8.4% was registered by food and beverage service activities. Wages in construction, industry and also in transportation and storage exceeded the level of real growth by 4%. Real wages in information and communication increased at the slowest pace, by only 1.3%.

Download high resolution chart format PDF (82 kB) or PNG (166 kB).

In total for the first eleven months of 2023, all 10 monthly monitored sectors registered an increase in the nominal monthly wage, with a double-digit increase in up to 8 of them. Wages increased the most in food and beverage service activities by 14.5% to EUR 704, in accommodation by 14% to EUR 1 077 and in construction by 12.7% to EUR 1 022.

Wages rose in real terms from the beginning of 2023 in 7 out of 10 monitored sectors. It increased the most in food and beverage service activities by 3.2% and in accommodation by 2.7%. Year-on-year real wages remained lower in information and communication (decrease by 3.6%) and also in industry, or in sale and repair of motor vehicles (decrease of up to 1%).

Year-on-year development of employment

Employment³⁾ in November 2023 decreased year-on-year in as many as 8 out of 10 monthly monitored production sectors. In the largest employer sector, industry3), less than a percentage of employees decreased year-on-year, while employment in this sector has been decreasing for 21 months, except March last year. The most significant year-on-year decrease in the number of employees by 7.2% was recorded by food and beverage service activities, while retail and wholesale also experienced a decline in employment by more than 3%.

Employment rose only in construction by 0.2% and in information and communication by 1.5%.

In total, since the beginning of 2023, the number of employees increased year-on-year in only 4 of the 10 monitored sectors, namely from 0.9% to 1.9% in motor vehicle sales and repair, accommodation, construction and information and communication sectors. Other sectors employed fewer employees year-on-year. Employment decreased most significantly, by more than 2%, in wholesale and in food and beverage service activities.