Wages, salaries grow by 1.4% in May-July

The wages and salaries sum of the whole economy in May to July was 1.4 per cent greater than in the corresponding period of the last year, according to Statistics Finland.

In July alone, the wages and salaries sum of the whole economy fell by 1.3 per cent from one year ago. One year previously in May to July the wages and salaries sum increased by 1.1 per cent.

The wages and salaries sum grew fastest in construction, where growth amounted 7.1 per cent from the corresponding period last year. The wages and salaries sums of other services (4.4 %), private health and social work (3.8 %), financial intermediation (2.6 %), manufacturing (2.2 %) and trade (1.3 %) also grew.

The wages and salaries sum of private education declined by 1.5 per cent from the respective time period twelve months earlier.

The wages and salaries sum in the private sector was 4.2 per cent greater in May to July. In the public sector, the wages and salaries sum fell by 3,6 per cent. In July alone, the wages and salaries sum in the private sector grew by 0.8 per cent from one year earlier.

In July, the wages and salaries sum in the public sector fell by 5.7 per cent from one year earlier. In the May to July period one year ago, the wages and salaries sum increased by 1.9 per cent in the private sector while it decreased by 0.5 per cent in the public sector.

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 adopted new treatment for closures of small enterprises starting from the data for May 2016. This affected the revision of data at the turn of the year and in early 2016.