Austria's International Unit Labour Cost Position Improved in 2004

Wien (OTS) - In Austrian manufacturing, one hour of blue-collar
labour cost 20.80 Euro in 2004, hence approximately 2.25 percent less
than the average paid by the country's trading partners in the EU 15.
Of this amount, 11.40 Euro were paid in wages and 9.40 Euro in
non-wage labour costs. The latter thus made up 82.6 percent of wages,
a decline of 1 percentage point against 2003, due essentially to a
reduction of health insurance contributions for workers and a
decrease in sickness times.

Austria currently ranks ninth in the international hierarchy of
labour costs. Viewed in the short term, this position changes chiefly
with exchange-rate variations. Labour is most expensive in Denmark,
Norway and Germany: in Denmark, the cost of one hour of work in
manufacturing is 35 percent higher than in Austria, in Norway 31
percent, and in Germany a good 28 percent, followed by Switzerland,
Belgium and Finland (approximately +20 percent). While in France the
costs are similar to those in Austria, they are lower in UK ( 4.50
percent), Ireland and the USA (approximately 10 percent), Italy ( 17
percent) and Spain ( 20 percent). For Slovenia the difference
vis-à-vis Austria is 60 percent, followed by Hungary ( 75 percent),
the Czech Republic and the Slovakia (about 80 percent).

In the second half of the 1990s, productivity of Austria's
manufacturing sector rose considerably (+5.3 percent per year),
exceeding the average of the trading partners by 2.2 percentage
points. The rise in productivity slowed down simultaneously with
lower economic growth after 2000, but again reached 5.6 percent in
2004. The annual rate of output growth per employee since 2000 has
been 3.0 percent on average, exceeding the average of the competing
countries by 0.5 percentage point.

With exchange-rate relations stabilised, and wage inflation
running at a low rate while productivity continued to grow briskly,
the unit labour cost position of Austrian manufacturing improved
considerably in the second half of the 1990s and has remained largely
unchanged on average since 2000. Relative unit labour costs have been
falling by a good 20 percent since the mid 1990s compared with both
EU trading partners and the average of all trading partners in a
single currency. As in 2004 labour costs grew only slightly and
productivity was increased significantly (+5.6 percent), unit labour
costs in Austria decreased by 3.5 percent. As the slowdown in costs
of the trading partners in a single currency was smaller on average,
Austria's unit labour cost position improved by 1.5 percent compared
with the EU, and by 0.9 percentage point compared with all trading
partners.

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Rückfragehinweis:
For further information, please refer to:
Alois Guger, phone (1) 798 26 01, ext. 264
mailto:[email protected]

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