Construction pay bill down 50% since 2008

In spite of a slight recovery in the construction industry, the total amount paid out in earnings in the sector is more than 50% lower than at the height of the boom.

The latest figures on earnings and labour costs from the Central Statistics Office show that, while average pay in the construction sector has stayed relatively static — €39,136 in 2008 compared to €37,884 in 2014 — the total wage bill across the sector has slumped from €5.54bn to €2.55bn over the same period.

The decline reflects the fact that employment numbers in the sector are still a fraction of what they were at the height of the boom.

Across the economy, the average wage in 2014 was €35,768 — a 3% drop on 2009, when it was €36,835 and a 0.2% drop on the figure for 2013 (€35,830). The sector with the highest average wage last year was information and communication at €53,442. That sector has seen the biggest rise in earnings, 10.7%, of any over the last five years.

The biggest falls in average earnings since 2009 has been in human health and social work (11.5% — from €39,589 in 2009 to €35,025 in 2014) and in education (down by 10.6% from €46,216 in 2009 to €41,332).

The CSO research found that, over the course of the 12 months to the end of 2014, average earnings rose in five of the 13 sectors, with the largest percentage increase recorded in construction (4.6%) from €36,230 to €37,884.

“The largest sectoral percentage decrease was recorded in both the education sector and the arts, entertainment, recreation, and other services sector (-2.9%) where values fell from €42,554 to €41,332 and €25,158 to €24,438 respectively,” said the CSO.

Infographic courtesy of Michelle O'Keeffe

It is worth noting that when the figures are looked at next year, they will start to include the rises secured by public sector unions for their 290,000 members under the new Lansdowne Road agreement. The State’s employees are set to receive an average increase of €2,000 over the next two years, with the reduction in the amount paid in the pension levy and a reversal of pay cuts.

The total amount in annual earnings across the economy in 2014 was €57.7bn. Thanks to a fall in unemployment numbers and in spite of the fall in average earnings, the total earnings across the economy last year was 2.8% higher than the €56.1bn in 2013 — an increase of €1.6bn.

“Increases were seen in 10 of the 13 economic sectors in 2014, with the largest percentage increase in the construction sector, which rose 19.0% from €2.1bn to €2.6bn,” the CSO said.

“The largest percentage decrease in total annual earnings was in the Arts, entertainment, recreation and other services sector, which decreased 7.6% from €1.2bn to €1.1bn.”

When it came to labour costs, the CSO found that the annual average total fell by 0.3% between 2014 (€41,294) and 2013 (€41,433). It said in the five years to 2014 the total annual labour costs have decreased by €2.3bn, or 3.3%.

Total annual labour costs is the is the sum of total annual earnings and total annual other labour costs which redundancy payments, employers contribution to social security, other social costs, benefits in kind, and other labour costs.