Unit labour cost position for goods production deteriorated slightly in 2013 due to foreign exchange rate development and economic stagnation

The modest development in workers' productivity due to the downturn led to a rise in unit labour costs of about 2.1 percent compared to the year before. Combined with an unfavourable exchange rate development (+1.8 percent), this affected the unit labour cost position for Austrian goods producers compared to the average of Austria's trading partners. A comparison with Germany nevertheless found a slight improvement, same as last year. In the long term the unit labour cost position of goods producers in Austria has hardly budged relative to its trading partners since 2003.