AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS have fallen in nine of the thirteen sectors monitored by the Central Statistics Office, according to their latest figures.

The stats show that the average weekly wage for the third quarter of the year was €675.53 – down from €691.93 this time last year; a decrease of 2.4 per cent.

Average hourly earnings were €21.40, compared with €21.80 for the same period in 2012. The figures are gross earnings, before taxes and levys are applied.

The largest percentage decrease over the past year was in the education sector, which dropped 6.6 per cent. The biggest increase was in ‘information and communication’ — increasing by just over 4 per cent.

The findings for the two sectors show the continuation of a longer trend: in the past four years, weekly wages for those working in education have dropped by almost 13 per cent, from an average of €942.42 in 2009 to €821.97 today. Those working in ICT have seen their wages rise by around 12 per cent to €1,028.23 in the same peroid.

Public/Private

Weekly earnings in the private sector fell by 1.4 per cent in the year to the end of September, compared with a decrease of 1.1 per cent in the public sector (including semi-states) over the same period, bringing average weekly earnings to €606.97 and €915.88 respectively.

In the past four years, public sector weekly earnings have fallen by €47.88, compared with a decrease of €2.41 in private sector average weekly earnings.

The CSO notes in a statement summing up the latest stats that, as many public sector employees are paid on an incremental scale, the absence of recruitment leads to an increase in the figure for average weekly pay.

Smaller/larger

Interestingly, companies with with less than 50 employees showed an annual increase of 0.7% in hourly earnings — rising slightly from €17.89 to €18.01.

Enterprises with between 50 and 250 employees recorded a marginal decrease, while firms with more than 250 employees showed a decrease of 2.8%,  with average values of dropping from €25.29 to€24.58.

Read: 85 per cent in debt deals are families with children

Read: Unemployment falls to 12.8 per cent, the lowest since 2009