Labor costs have increased more than company profits since 2021 in most OECD countries but not in Portugal

It’s a cycle reversal. This is what the Employment Outlook, the annual report of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), released this Tuesday, defines. Although unit labor costs have increased post-pandemic in most OECD countries, the truth is that until the beginning of 2022, company profits had followed the same trend, rising above labor costs in most countries. Since then, however, the scenario has changed.

The report released this Tuesday shows that in accumulated terms, between the last quarter of 2021 and the first three months of this year, unit labor costs grew more than unit profits by around two thirds. of countries (19 out of 29 countries) for which data are available. In Portugal the trend was the opposite. In the country, the unit cost of labor increased, in accumulated terms, 16.9%, while company profits increased 17.8%, according to the OECD.