Euro zone second quarter labour costs jump despite stalling economy

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The rise in euro zone labour costs accelerated in the second quarter compared to the first three months despite a stalling economy, the European Union's Statistics Office said on Tuesday.

Eurostat said total labour costs in the 18 countries sharing the euro rose 1.2 percent year-on-year, of which wages grew 1.2 percent and other costs, like social security contributions, increased 1.0 percent.

The labour cost rise is twice as fast as in the previous three months, even though the 9.6 trillion euro economy stagnated quarter-on-quarter in the April-June period.

The costs grew mainly as a result of a 1.7 percent increase in the labour costs in Europe's biggest economy Germany.

In Italy, which is struggling to get its economy growing again and become more competitive, labour costs were unchanged year-on-year in the second quarter after falling in the first, and Italian wages continued to fall.

Also Ireland, which had to overhaul its economy since 2010 because it was cut off from financial markets, reported a 0.4 percent drop in labour costs and a 0.6 percent fall in wages.

France, the euro zone's second biggest economy badly in need of faster economic growth and stronger public finances, saw a 0.9 percent increase in total labour costs after 1.3 percent in the first quarter.

But the more expensive French labour was mainly due to wage rises as the social contributions component fell 0.4 percent continuing a trend of diminishing non-wage costs that began at the start of 2013.

Separately, Eurostat said that the number of job vacancies in the euro zone was stable at 1.7 percent in the second quarter, with the highest number of vacancies recorded in Germany, where it was 2.8 percent.

(Reporting By Jan Strupczewski, Editing by Martin Santa)