Wages and salaries in November grows 3.1% YOY

Wages and salaries sum grew by 3.1 per cent year-on-year in September to November last year, according to Statistics Finland.

The wages and salaries sum of the whole economy was 3.1 per cent greater in the September to November period than in the corresponding period twelve months earlier. In November, the wages and salaries sum of the whole economy grew by 3.7 per cent from one year ago. One year previously in September to November, the wages and salaries sum of the whole economy increased by 2.2 per cent.

In September to November, the wages and salaries sum grew fastest in construction, where growth amounted to 6.2 per cent from one year ago. Growth was also recorded for the wages and salaries sums of other services (5.4%), financial intermediation (3.7%), private health and social work (2.7%), manufacturing (2.5%) and trade (2.2%). The wages and salaries sum of private education (-0.2%) decreased compared to the corresponding period of one year ago.

The sum of wages and salaries paid in the private sector was 4.6 per cent greater in the September to November period than in the corresponding period twelve months earlier. The wages and salaries sum of the public sector was 0.6 per cent higher than in the corresponding period one year previously. In November, the wages and salaries sum in the private sector increased by 5.8 per cent and in the public sector by 0.2 per cent from one year earlier. In the September to November period one year ago, the wages and salaries sum grew by 3.4 per cent in the private sector and by 0.1 per cent in the public sector for the previous year.

The wages and salaries sum refers to the sum total of the gross wages and salaries paid to employees without incentive stock options. The wages and salaries sum is influenced by changes in employment and in the earnings level of wage and salary earners.

The wage and salary indices will adopt base year 2015=100 from the January 2018 data. Data using the new base year will be published for the first time on 13 March 2018.

Starting from this statistical release the latest industries defined by the Business Register have been taken into use in the turnover and wage and salary indices. The industry corrections are visible as revised data in some of the published industries for the years 2016-2017.

The effects of the changes are taken into consideration in statistics production so that no breaks occur in the time series of the published index series. The interpretation of the statistics also remains unchanged in the renewal. Revisions to annual changes in industries are presented under Revisions in these statistics.