Bulgaria's Labor Cost Went Up in Q4, 2015

Quarterly labor cost in Bulgaria rose by 5.8% in October-December, 2015 last year compared to the same period of the previous year, statistics show.

Hourly labor cost most notably grew in construction (11%), followed by 8.1% in industry and 4.6% in services, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) has said.

A breakdown by economic activities reveals that the highest annual growths in total labor costs were recorded in 'Administrative and support service activities' - 14.2%, 'Real estate activities' and 'Construction' - 11.0%.

The lowest increase in total labor costs was observed in 'Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities' and 'Transportation and storage' by 2.3% and 2.5% respectively.

Decrease by 0.6% in total labor costs was observed in 'Accommodation and food service activities'.

In the structure of the total labor costs, the wages and salaries costs per hour worked grew by 5.9% in comparison with a year earlier, while the other (non-wage) costs rose by 5.2%.

Among the economic activities in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to the fourth quarter of 2014 the growth rate of wages and salaries component ranged from 0.1% in 'Accommodation and food service activities' to 14.8% in 'Administrative and support service activities'.