Average weekly earnings fall 1.4%

AVERAGE weekly earnings fell by 1.4% year-on-year during the third quarter of the year — with the public sector taking the biggest hit.

New figures published yesterday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), show that, in all, the average Irish weekly wage fell to €685.10 in the three months to the end of September, from €694.69 for the same period last year.

The largest declines — in terms of sectors — were a 12.3% year-on-year fall in education salaries and a 6.2% fall in construction-related pay. However, there was a general earnings’ decline evident across most economic sectors — with eight out of the 13 measured seeing a fall.