AVERAGE weekly earnings in the public sector continue to outstrip private enterprise pay by more than €300.

Public sector workers earned an average weekly wage of €918.99 at the end of June this year compared with €611.66 in the private sector, according to latest earnings and labour cost figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The figures for the second quarter of this year show a slight 0.5pc drop in private sector weekly earnings compared with the same period last year.

In contrast, public sector workers -- including those in semi-state organisations -- saw their average weekly earnings rise by 2.8pc over the same period.

When both sectors are combined, average weekly earnings were €687.84, a slight fall over last year.

Losers

Despite the marginal overall decline in pay, average earnings rose in seven of the 13 sectors surveyed by the CSO.

Workers in financial, insurance and real estate were among those who fared best. While their average weekly pay has dropped by more than 8pc over the past four years, they continue to top the pay league, with average weekly earnings of €983.

Information and communication workers saw their pay rise by almost 5pc in the last 12 months, giving them average weekly earnings of €962.

But it was workers in the professional, scientific and technical sectors who enjoyed the biggest annual increase of the year -- 5.9pc, with average weekly earnings of €801.

However, those working in the accommodation and food services areas continue to see a drop in their earnings. Their average weekly pay in the second quarter of 2012 fell by 5.7pc and their average weekly earnings of €310 were just a third of the pay enjoyed by those at the top of the earnings table.

Reflecting the continued downturn in their industry, construction workers also suffered a drop in earnings, with their average weekly pay falling by 5.4pc to €658.

The CSO figures also show that the bigger the employer, the more workers earned. Workers in a company with fewer than 50 employees had average weekly earnings of €532.

Embargo

This rose to €634 in enterprises with 50 to 250 employees and increased to €820 for firms with more than 250 employees.

According to the last CSO index, the jobs embargo across the public sector continues to bite, with numbers employed falling by almost 26,000 in the past year.

There are 380,800 people working in the public sector, down by 6.3pc over the year to June.

In all, the total reduction in public sector numbers over the three years from 2009 was 36,800 -- an 8.8pc decline.

The civil service saw numbers falling in the past year by 5,900 to just over 39,000, a drop of 13pc.

And with many teachers leaving the profession, more than 8,000 fewer people work in education -- where numbers fell by 6.9pc to just over 109,000 in the second quarter of this year -- compared with 117,500 for the same period last year.

Just over 1.1 million people are employed in the private sector, almost 247,000 fewer than in 2008.

Irish Independent