01 June 2021
Go to release: Earnings and Labour Costs Q4 2020 (Final) Q1 2021 (Preliminary Estimates)
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (01 June 2021) issued Earnings and Labour Costs results in respect of Preliminary estimates for Q1 2021 and Final estimates for Q4 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 Q1 2021 was very different to previous quarters including Q1 2020, against which the annual changes are measured. There were significantly fewer employments in certain sectors in Q1 2021. The accompanying Labour Market Bulletin Insight Series gives greater detail on compositional changes in employment in certain sectors.”
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 Q1 2021 for a number of sectors.
Across and within economic sectors the impact of the COVID-19 crisis continues to be experienced very differently. Preliminary estimates for Q1 2021 show average hourly earnings increased by 8.6% to €26.89 and average weekly paid hours recorded no change, remaining at 32.3 from the same period in 2020. Average weekly earnings were €867.52, an increase of 8.4% compared to Q1 2020. The job vacancy rate, which measures job vacancies on the last working day of the quarter, is 1.0%, up from 0.9% at the end of Q4 2020 and an increase from 0.8% at the end of Q1 2020.”
Referring to a separate Labour Market Bulletin Insight Series also being published by the CSO today (please see the Bulletin), Louise Egan continued:
“Today, the Labour Market and Earnings division in the CSO have also published the seventh bulletin from the Labour Market Insight Series. The data used for the bulletin is sourced from administrative datasets, namely the Revenue Commissioner’s employee level tax data (PMOD), which includes information in relation to the EWSS, as well as data provided from Revenue in relation to the TWSS.
Analysis presented in the bulletin supports results observed in the Earnings and Labour Costs release in relation to the quarterly changes in employments and earnings at a sectoral level between Q4 2020 and Q1 2021. It also presents analysis of the impact of the EWSS in both quarters.
Key findings from the bulletin include a decrease of 8.6% in the number of active employments in Q1 2021 when compared to Q4 2020. The sectors showing the largest percentage decrease in employments from Q4 2020 to Q1 2021 were the Accommodation & food service activities sector (-39.3%) and the Arts, entertainment, recreation & other service activities sector (-29.0%).
Average weekly pay (including EWSS where applicable) increased by 4.8% across all employments between Q4 2020 and Q1 2021. The sectors showing the largest quarterly percentage increase in average weekly pay were the Financial, insurance & real estate activities sector (14.4%) and the Arts, entertainment, recreation & other service activities sector (13.1%).
For employments that were active in both Q4 2020 and Q1 2021 average weekly earnings increased by 3.8% across all employments between Q4 2020 and Q1 2021, with changes by sector ranging from a decrease of 8.9% in Construction sector to an increase of 21.1% in the Financial, insurance & real estate activities sector.
In relation to the EWSS, in Q1 2021, 17.3% of active employments in NACE sectors B-S were directly supported by the scheme. The proportion of employments supported by the EWSS in Q1 2021 varied across the sectors with the Accommodation & food services sector (71.5%) and the Arts, entertainment, recreation & other service activities sector (39.5%) having the highest proportions and the Public administration & defence sector (0.3%) having the lowest proportion.
EWSS payments accounted for 4.9% of total earnings across all sectors (B-S) in Q1 2021. In the Accommodation & food services sector EWSS payments represented 49.5% of total earnings, while in the Arts, entertainment, recreation & other service activities sector, the Construction sector and the Transportation & storage sector the proportions were 17.0%, 13.1% and 12.9% respectively.”
Referring to the ongoing reporting difficulties being faced by enterprises due to COVID-19, Louise Egan explained:
“Preliminary estimates for Q1 2021 have been negatively impacted by lower than usual response rates and the difficulties enterprises faced both recording the information required and sending their EHECS data.
The sectors particularly impacted by low rates of survey response were Construction, Administrative & support services, Accommodation & food services and Transportation & storage. 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.)
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