MaltaMedia.com

Data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Monday reveal that in the first quarter of 2011, turnover and employment in selected services activities went up by 5.6 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively.

In the period between January and March 2011 turnover in the services sector stood at 101.7 points, up by 5.6 per cent when compared to the corresponding period last year. During this period, wholesale trade advanced by 2.3 per cent.

Furthermore, increases were registered in Retail trade (+5.4 per cent), Transportation and storage (+8.1 per cent), and in Accommodation and food services activities (+9.6 per cent).

NSO added that the first quarter showed that employment in services edged up by 0.2 per cent to 95.5 points, mainly on account of increases in Accommodation and food services activities (+1.1 per cent) and in Retail trade (+0.9 per cent). Partially mitigating this rise was a decline in employment in Wholesale trade, Transportation and storage, Information and communication and Administrative and support service activities of 0.9, 0.5, 2.7 and 2.1 per cent respectively.

NSO said that during this period, gross wages and salaries went up by 1.3 per cent. Increases were registered in the Accommodation and food services activities (+5.1 per cent) and in the Wholesale trade (+2.4 per cent). On the other hand, Transportation and storage and Information and communication declined by 6.5 and 0.2 per cent respectively.

Hours worked advanced by 0.8 per cent in the first quarter when compared with the corresponding quarter of 2010. The major increases were registered in the Accommodation and food services activities (+2.8 per cent) and in Retail trade (+1.2 per cent). In contrast, hours worked in Wholesale trade and Transportation and storage fell by 3.0 and 0.9 per cent respectively.