This chapter looks at the real average weekly earnings of three Industry sectors for the period 1938 to 2015. It then presents real average weekly earnings of industrial and economic sectors in the Irish economy from the 1980s to 2015.

Data is available from 1938 for three industrial sectors:

• Manufacturing 
• Transportable Goods
• All Industries 

The Transportable Goods sector is composed of the Manufacturing sector plus the Mining and Quarrying sector while the All Industries sectors is defined as the Transportable Goods sector plus the Electricity, Water and Waste sector. The earnings from these sectors are available for industrial occupations working in these sectors. All three exhibit very similar trends over the whole series, see Figure 2.1 below, with the All Industries sector having slightly higher earnings to the other two from 1982 onwards. More detailed breakdowns of average earnings in these three sectors are available from 1972 onward from StatBank, the CSO databank.

Figure 2.2 illustrates average weekly real earnings of all employees working in various economic sectors of the Irish economy from 1986 to 2015. It is clear from this chart that the Financial sector had the highest average earnings over this time period. Average earnings in the Construction sector increased continuously from the late 1980s up until 2007 after which earnings fell significantly and remained at this lower level up to 2015. Average weekly real earnings in the Distribution and Business Services sector increased from 1998 to 2007. Average weekly real earnings in the Industry sector increased between 1996 and 2010 before declining over the following two years 2011 and 2012 followed by an increase in both 2014 and 2015.

Go to: Occupational Earnings