Hourly earnings in the industrial sector rose 3.7 per cent from €18.70 to €19.49 during the third quarter of 2008, according to preliminary estimates from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
However, the latest figures show that the number of people employed in the sector fell by 11,700 from 240,000 to 228,300 people over the year. This decrease was primarily to a decline in the number of production, transport and other manual workers.
In the financial sector, average hourly earnings rose 6.5 per cent from €25.14 to €26.77 during the third quarter of 2008 compared to the same quarter in 2007. The number of people employed in the sector rose 3,500 over the 12 months from 81,000 to 84,500 people.
According to CSO, there was an annual increase in the number of average weekly paid hours in the industrial sector from 37.9 hours to 38.4 hours over the year. In the financial sector, the number of weekly paid hours fell slightly from 34 hours to 33.8 hours.
Hourly labour costs rose by 6.8 per cent in the industrial sector from €23.15 to €24.73 and by 5.4 per cent in the in the financial sector from €33.95 per hour to €35.80 per hour.
Earnings per week within the industrial sector totalled €777.71 compared with weekly earnings of €951.02 in the financial sector in the third quarter of 2008. Weekly earnings for managers and other professionals were highest in the financial sector at €1,270.44 while the weekly earnings were €1,163.81 in the industrial sector.
Clerical, sales and service employees earned €637.07 in the financial sector and €747.29 in the industrial sector while production, transport and other manual workers saw earnings of €580.04 in the financial sector and €639.5 in the industrial sector.
Employees on the National Minimum Wage rate accounted for 2 per cent of all employees in the industrial sector, according to CSO.
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