Unit labour costs (ULCs) in the OECD area rose by 0.3% in the second quarter of 2012, according to OECD statistics. Since the beginning of the financial crisis, unit labour costs in the euro area have risen by about 9%, 3 percentage points higher than the OECD average. However, rebalancing between euro countries has in most cases been on the way since the beginning of 2009. In Ireland, Spain and Portugal, ULCs have continued to fall or remain moderate, mainly driven by labour productivity growth as a result of significant cuts in employment.
English: http://www.oecd.org/std/labourstatistics/ULC_2012Q2_%20Eng.pdf
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.