Year-on-year wage growth in Ireland was 4.3% in June, up slightly from the 4% to 4.1% range recorded since the start of this year, according to new research.
The data is contained in the latest report in a wage growth series from jobs website Indeed and the Central Bank of Ireland.
It shows that despite last month’s increase, wage growth in Ireland is well below its August 2022 peak of 6.4%, although it remains higher than the pre-pandemic average of 2.5% in 2019.
According to the report, the gradual decline over the past two years is in line with the slowdown in wage growth seen in most large euro-area countries as inflation fell from its post-pandemic peaks and job postings gradually declined.
“The fact that wage growth remains above its pre-pandemic norms is a concern for some ECB policymakers, as they worry that high wage growth across the euro area may drive continued persistence in inflation in the service sector, where labour accounts for a high share of firms’ costs,” said Pawel Adrjan, Economist at Indeed.
“From a jobseeker perspective, relatively high nominal wage growth means that posted wages have now been growing faster than CPI inflation in Ireland for 5 consecutive months, helping regain some of the losses in purchasing power incurred in the past two years,” Mr Adrjan said.
The Wage Tracker series is a collaboration between the Central Bank of Ireland and Indeed.
It looks at wage growth trends in job ads in six euro-area countries – France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain – the UK and the US.
It shows that wages in job postings grew at an annual rate of 3.1% in the US, 7% in the UK and 3.7% in the euro-area in June 2024.