Average hourly earnings declined in the final quarter of 2010, while the number of people employed in both the public and private sectors also fell, new data has said.

Information from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed average hourly earnings were €21.96 per hour in the final three months of 2010, compared with €22.38 a year earlier, a 1.9 per cent decline over the year.

For 2010, average hourly earnings were 1.6 per cent lower than the previous year, coming after a 2.5 per cent increase recorded in 2009.

The worst hit was human health and social work, which fell by 6.7 per cent, while public administration and defence was down 6.1 per cent. In total, nine out of 13 sectors saw earnings decline.

Those working in the public sector were particularly affected by the decline, with the average hourly earnings for those workers falling by 4.9 per cent compared with the marginal fall of 0.3 per cent in the private sector.

Meanwhile, average weekly paid hours fell to 31.8 in the fourth quarter of 2010, down 0.9 per cent over the year, and weekly earnings fell by 2.5 per cent year on year.

The figures also showed that the total number of employees fell by 39,700, a 2.5 per cent decline, in the year to the fourth quarter of last year. Private sector employment was worse affected, falling by 5,900 or 3.1 per cent over the 12-month period, while public sector employment declined by 3,800, or 0.9 per cent.