In industry, labour costs per hour were €26.6 in the EU and €32.6 in the euro area, in services €25.8 and €28.7 respectively and in construction €23.3 and €26.1. In the mainly non-business economy (excluding public administration), labour costs per hour were €26.6 in the EU and €29.7 in the euro area in 2016. Labour costs are made up of wages & salaries and non-wage costs such as employers' social contributions. The share of non-wage costs in the whole economy was 23.9% in the EU and 26.0% in the euro area, ranging from 6.6% in Malta to 33.2% in France. These estimates for 2016 come from an article issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. Data cover enterprises with 10 or more employees and are based on the Labour Cost Survey data for 2012, which are extrapolated through the Labour Cost Index. 

Decrease in hourly labour costs in Italy Between 2015 and 2016, hourly labour costs in the whole economy expressed in € rose by 1.6% in the EU and by 1.4% in the euro area. When comparing labour cost estimates over time, levels expressed in national currency should be used to eliminate the influence of exchange rate movements. Within the euro area, the largest increases were recorded in the Baltic Member States: Lithuania (+7.5%), Latvia (+6.4%) and Estonia (+5.6%). The only decrease was observed in Italy (-0.8%), while hourly labour costs remained nearly stable in Malta (+0.0%), the Netherlands (+0.1%) and Belgium (+0.2%). For Member States outside the euro area in 2016, and expressed in national currency, the largest rises in hourly labour costs in the whole economy were registered in Romania (+12.7%) and Bulgaria (+7.8%), and the smallest increases in the United Kingdom (+1.5%) and Denmark (+1.9%).