Germany non-wage costs index, service activities
Germany non-wage costs index, service activities stood at 132.09 in Q2 2026, according to Deutsche Bundesbank. It is one of the indicators in the Labour cost index table (Value · Quarterly), with a complete series running from Q1 1996 to Q2 2026. The complete series with an interactive chart, free to download.
This indicator in the Labour cost index table
| Indicator | Q2-2026 | Q1-2026 | Q4-2025 | Q3-2025 | Q2-2025 | Q1-2025 | Q4-2024 | Q3-2024 | Q2-2024 | Q1-2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Section G-S - Service activities2 | 132.09 | 128.83 | 129.38 | 129.36 | 128.04 | 126.77 | 122.1 | 123.84 | 123.53 | 123.39 | |
| Section G-N - Market-based service activities | 136.54 | 133.16 | 132.92 | 133.33 | 132.97 | 131.58 | 126.96 | 128.94 | 126.89 | 127.55 | |
| Section O-S - Non-market service activities | 127.63 | 124.51 | 125.83 | 125.38 | 123.12 | 121.97 | 117.25 | 118.73 | 120.18 | 119.24 |
Understanding germany non-wage costs index, service activities
Indirect hourly labour expenditures across the entire tertiary sector dictate the movements of this G-S aggregate. The classification bridges the gap between commercial enterprises like retail, transport, and finance, and state-adjacent entities spanning healthcare, education, and social work. It quantifies the collective burden of employer social contributions, mandated leave, and staff training overheads outside the physical production economy. By merging both market-driven and non-market domains, it provides a macroeconomic counterbalance to the industrial indices, reflecting the cost reality for the vast majority of the modern domestic workforce.
Sequential quarterly comparisons frequently mislead analysts due to the varied timing of public holidays and school vacations, which unevenly depress the hours-worked denominator across different service branches. Evaluating the index on an annual basis provides a robust gauge of underlying overhead structures. Revisions serve as a standard feature of the release cycle, primarily because the immense volume of small and medium-sized enterprises in the tertiary sector leads to delayed administrative reporting. Periodic rebasing of the index introduces minor structural breaks when the relative weighting of rapidly expanding sub-sectors, such as information technology or eldercare, is recalibrated against legacy industries.
Frequently asked questions
- Are retail and wholesale trade included in this broad category?
- Yes, all forms of commerce and trade fall under the initial sections of this comprehensive tertiary sector grouping.
- How does part-time employment impact the hourly cost measurement?
- Because the calculation divides total overhead outlays by actual hours worked, a high prevalence of part-time roles scales both the numerator and denominator proportionally.
- Do state subsidies for healthcare workers reduce the index?
- Subsidies that directly offset statutory employer social contributions lower the recorded non-wage outlays, thereby affecting the final hourly metric.