Earnings in business services, 1 September 2008

The real estate and business activities industry includes very different economic activities, and the monthly earnings therefore vary considerably. The highest earnings are found in architectural and engineering activities, at NOK 47 000, whereas the lowest are in industrial cleaning, at NOK 26 900.

Structural changes, as well as results from the wage negotiations, will influence the recorded changes in earnings. This includes the employment pattern, where employees change from full-time to part-time, or the other way around, or employees who change jobs from one industry to another. The development of average earnings is also influenced by the amount of employees who leave and join the work force.

From 2007 to 2008, real estate and business activities have increased in terms of number of employees, and most of these new employees are working in low wage industries, like the provision of personnel activities, or the temp industry, as it is better known. This keeps the overall earnings growth down.

Computer activities and real estate activities

Computer activities is an industry with a fair amount of employees, with average monthly earnings of NOK 46 000. Chartered engineers, IT consultants, system developers and other professionals constitute about half of the employees in this industry, and they earned NOK 45 800 per month as of 1 September 2008. This was a year-on-year growth of 5.5 per cent. In comparison, professionals in real estate had average monthly earnings of NOK 48 000.

Provision of personnel activities and security activities

Security and investigation activities, which includes private security guards, experienced a year-on-year earnings surge of 9.5 per cent as a whole. With regard to security guards specifically, we find an increase from NOK 23 500 in 2007 to NOK 25 000 in 2008; a development of 6.5 per cent. Provision of personnel activities is comprised mainly by clerks, like secretaries. This industry as a whole had a rise in monthly earnings of eight per cent, as opposed to the clerks’ increase of 3.8 per cent.

Annual salaries escalate 4.8 per cent

Full-time employees in real estate, renting and business activities have an estimated annual salary of NOK 467 700 in 2008. This is an improvement of NOK 21 300, or 4.8 per cent, from the previous year. Estimated annual earnings are based on salaries being paid out for 12 months a year, so that any holiday pay allowance is not included. Annual earnings cover basic salary, variable additional allowances and bonuses, but do not include overtime pay. For the calculation, information from two years of wage statistics are used as well as information from the wage negotiations. Estimated annual earnings for the current year are preliminary until wage statistics for the next year have been established.

Tables:

• Table 1 Employees in real estate and business activities per full-time eqvivalent per 1 September 2007 and 2008. NOK and percentage change
• Table 2 Full-time employees in real estate and business activities . Average monthly earnings, by division. 1 September 2007-2008. NOK and percentage change
• Table 3 Full-time employees in real estate and business activities. Average monthly earnings, by group. 1 September 2008. NOK
• Table 4 Full-time employees in real estate and business activities. Estimated annual earnings, by division 2007 and 2008. NOK and percentage change