Average industrial earnings rose by 5.5 per cent in the 12 months to last December, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office. This was up from 4.7 per cent for the 12 months ending September 1998.
While the increase indicates a certain degree of wage drift, preliminary figures for the first quarter of 1999 show that wages increased by only 1.1 per cent, suggesting that the rate of increase may have slowed.