Private health and social work lead salary growth

The wages and salaries sum of the whole Finnish economy was 2.2% greater in the October to December 2019 period than in the corresponding period twelve months earlier.

However, this development is much slower than one year before. In October to December 2018, the wages and salaries sum of the whole economy had increased by 5%.

According to Statistics Finland, the growth in the wages and salaries sum was fastest in the industry of private health and social work, which grew by 7% per cent from the previous year.The wages and salaries sums of other services (2.9%), manufacturing (1.5%), trade (2.0%) and financial intermediation (1.3%) and private education (1.0%) were also growing. The wages and salaries sum decreased in construction (-0.1%) compared to the corresponding period of the year before.

Private vs public sector

In the private sector, wages and salaries sum grew by 2.5 per cent year-on-year in the last quarter of 2019. In the public sector, the increase was slightly lower (2.1%) compared to the corresponding period one year before.In the last month of the year, December, the wages and salaries sum in the private sector increased by 0.3% and in the public sector by 1% year-on-year.

The wages and salaries sum refers to the sum total of the gross wages and salaries paid to employees without incentive stock options. The wages and salaries sum is influenced by changes in employment and in the earnings level of wage and salary earners.