Statistische Nachrichten - Summaries November 2020

Structure of Earnings Survey 2018

Development and distribution of earnings

According to the Structure of Earnings Survey (SES) 2018 the median gross hourly earnings (excluding overtime) in the private sector amounted to EUR 15.09. Compared to the SES 2014 the gross hourly wages rose nominally by 8.8% or 2.2% per year. Real gross hourly earnings, which are adjusted for inflation, increased by 2.6% or 0.7% per year. In industries and construction (ÖNACE 2008 B-F) the increase in wages between 2014 und 2018 was nominally 9.7% (real 3.5%) and therefore stronger than in trade and services (ÖNACE 2008 G-N, P-S) with 8.1% (real 2.0%). With EUR 16.66 the hourly earnings in industries and construction were traditionally higher than in trade and services with EUR 14.19. By individual economic sectors the highest earnings were found in section (D) electricity (EUR 24.75), (K) financial and insurance activities (EUR 22.29) as well as in (J) information and communication (EUR 21.10). The lowest gross hourly earnings were observed in (I) accommodation and food service activities (EUR 9.67). In all economic sectors examined, the (median) gross hourly earnings of women were lower than those of men. Overall, women earned EUR 13.43 and men EUR 16.26 per hour. This means women earned 17.4% less than men in 2018. Compared to 22.7% in 2006 the wages difference between men and women decreased by 5.3 percentage points or 0.4 percentage points per year.

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Minimum Income Scheme 2019

Results of the provinces

In 2019 a total of 267 683 persons were supported by the minimum income scheme (“Mindestsicherung”). After the strong annual growth until 2016, a stagnation in 2017 and a first reduction in 2018, the number of supported persons decreased by 18 208 (-5.9%) compared to the previous year. The total expenditure (subsistence, housing needs, protection in case of sickness) amounted to EUR 913 million (-28 million or -3.0% compared to 2018). Corresponding to the number of recipients (64%, annual average), the major part thereof was spent in Vienna (EUR 607 million, annual amount). The average monthly expenditure per community in need for subsistence and housing needs reached EUR 668 and was highest in Vorarlberg (EUR 805) and in Tyrol (EUR 758).

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CPI of September 2020

The inflation rate of the Consumer Price Index (CPI, base year 2015) in September 2020, was 1.5% (August 2020: 1.4%). Housing, water and energy (+2.3% compared to September 2019) remained the most important price driver, followed by expenditures for restaurants and hotels (+3.4%). The index level of the CPI 2015 was 108.6 in September 2020. Compared to the previous month, the average price level increased by 0.6%. The index level of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP, base year 2015) was 108.87 in September 2020 (August 2020: revised 107.82), with the harmonised inflation rate at 1.3%. The measures to contain COVID-19 in September had an even smaller impact on the calculation of the inflation rate than in August. Imputation methods like seasonal imputation were used for a few items in the tourism sector, while hardly any services in the entertainment sector required all items imputation anymore. In total, this affected about 3.1% of the weight of the basket of goods and services. For further explanation of the general principles and applied computation rules, please refer to the methodological information note on the compilation of the CPI in the context of COVID-19 in the internet or to the article “Effects of COVID-19 on the calculation of the Consumer Price Index – Information on methodology”.

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Gross Domestic Product 2019

This article provides an overview of the recent results of the Austrian national accounts for the year 2019 and explains the major revisions for the years 2016 to 2018. Most of the changes are due to the availability of more recent and detailed business statistics and to the balancing process of supply and use tables. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 1.4% in real terms in 2019, which means a slowdown in growth dynamics compared to the previous years (2017: +2,4%; 2018: +2,6%). According to the information so far available, Austrian real GDP growth was close to the EU-28 average (+1,5%), but exceeded the growth rates of important trading partners such as Germany (+0,6%) and Italy (+0,3%).

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Revision of the Quarterly National Accounts

In September 2020 Statistics Austria published QNA time series, which for the first time were compiled by Statistics Austria. In Austria QNA were formerly provided by the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO). The implementation at Statistics Austria involved revisions of recent quarterly QNA aggregates, as well as quarterly patterns of the time series ranging back to 1995. This article gives an overview of the implementation steps and presents main indicators, statistical estimation methods and the technical frame of the now published QNA aggregates. The article analyses main reasons for differences to the formerly published figures and provides latest estimation results for the 2nd quarter of 2020.