2020 Deterioration in Unit Labour Cost Position, but Data Distorted by COVID-19 Measures

Benjamin Bittschi and Andreas Reinstaller ()

WIFO Reports on Austria, 2021, issue 12

Abstract: In 2020, there was a marked year-on-year increase in unit labour costs in the manufacturing sector of 6.0 percent. Austria's unit labour cost position deteriorated both relative to the weighted average of all its trading partners (+1.7 percentage points) and relative to its EU trading partners (+1.5 percentage points). Despite this overall development, the unit labour cost position relative to Germany, Austria's most important trading partner (+0.1 percentage point) is largely unaltered. Due to differences in policy design and implementation of the COVID-19 aid measures (especially with regard to short-time work) across countries as well as the statistical treatment of these measures in the Quarterly National Accounts, the data underlying our calculations for 2020 are distorted and comparability across countries is limited.

Keywords: Unit labour costs; price competitiveness; manufacturing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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