We extend time-series models that have so far been used to study price inflation (Stock and Watson 2016) and apply them to a micro-level data set containing worker-level information on hourly wages. We construct a measure of aggregate nominal wage growth that (i) filters out noise and very transitory movements, (ii) quantifies the importance of idiosyncratic factors for aggregate wage dynamics, and (iii) strongly co-moves with labor market tightness, unlike existing indicators of wage inflation. We show that our measure is a reliable real-time indicator of wage pressures and a good predictor of future wage growth.

Large inflows of less educated immigrants may reduce wages paid to comparably-educated, native-born workers. However, if less educated foreign- and native-born workers specialize in different production tasks, because of different abilities, immigration will cause natives to reallocate their task supply, thereby reducing downward wage pressure. Using occupational task-intensity data from the O*NET dataset and individual US census data, we demonstrate that foreign-born workers specialize in occupations intensive in manual-physical labor skills while natives pursue jobs more intensive in communication-language tasks. This mechanism can explain why economic analyses find only modest wage consequences of immigration for less educated native-born workers. (JEL J24, J31, J61)

The minimum wage in South Korea jumped by 16.4 percent between 2017 and 2018 to reach 7,530 South Korean won per hour. In 2019, the minimum wage increased further to 8,350 won per hour. The repercussions of this move will have both positive and negative economic consequences, with some arguing unemployment will increase as smaller merchants become unable to pay their employees.

South Korea’s workforce

South Korea’s workforce is heavily dependent on the services sector, with over 70 percent employed in this economic sector in 2017. The economic contribution from this sector to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country was over 50 percent in the same year. The industry sector also employed a large share of the workforce in the country, and around 36 percent of the GDP was attributed to production in this sector.

Economic pressure

In 2019, the unemployment rate in the country peaked at 4.4 percent – the highest percentage since 2010. In particular, the retailing, manufacturing and construction sectors felt the brunt of the minimum wage increase, as employers became reluctant to hire low-paid workers. Along with other economic pressures, the weakened labor market looks set to drive future policy changes within the country.

Wages in China increased to 120698 CNY/Year in 2023 from 114029 CNY/Year in 2022. This dataset provides - China Average Yearly Wages - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

The Wage Price Index measures changes in the price of labour services resulting from market pressures, and is unaffected by changes in the quality or quantity of work performed. It is unaffected by changes in the composition of the labour force, hours worked, or changes in characteristics of employees (e.g. work performance). Information about the wage price indexes has been released for each quarter since September 1997. Individual indexes are published for various combinations of state and territory, public and private sectors, and broad industry groups.

The ECB wage tracker is the result of a Eurosystem partnership currently comprising the European Central Bank and seven euro area National Central Banks: Deutsche Bundesbank, Bank of Greece, Banco de España, Banque de France, Banca d’Italia, De Nederlandsche Bank, and Osterreichische Nationalbank. It is based on a highly granular database of active collective bargaining agreements for Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Austria. The wage tracker should be considered as only one of many possible sources that can help to assess wage pressures in the euro area. They are not the same as wage growth forecasts as they only indicate wage pressures that mechanically arise from the collective bargaining agreements already in place. The Eurosystem and ECB staff macroeconomic projections remain the most comprehensive assessment of the wage outlook for the euro area.

Between December 2022 and December 2023, wages in Australia grew by around 4.2 percent. Wage growth in recent years has been relatively low in comparison to previous years, in particular in December 2020, which only saw a wage growth of 1.3%. Inflation and CPI outstripping wages While wages have increased in Australia, they have still not matched the rate of inflation, which was sitting at 4.1 percent at the end of 2023, down from a high of 7.8 percent at the end of the previous year. The high cost of goods has also put pressure on the public, with the Consumer Price Index standing at around 136 points, compared to a base year of 2011-12. Rent is on the rise As with many around the world, Australians are also feeling the costs of rent increases. The majority of people in Australia perceive that the cost of rent has risen significantly in their local area. This in turn has seen the government expenditure on rental assistance continue to be high, with around 4.7 billion Australian dollars spent to assist the Australian public in maintaining their housing needs.

In 2020, the U.S. international airline groups incurred 4.24 billion U.S. dollars in total wage costs. Since 2017, enterprises operating in this market incurred a fluctuating total wage expenditure, with a downward pressure.

Quarterly series on labour productivity growth and related variables have been published for the first time on December 20th, 2000. These statistical series go back to the first quarter of 1981. The data are published two months after the reference quarter. The quarterly productivity measures are meant to assist in the analysis of the short-run relationship between the fluctuations of output, employment, compensation and hours worked. This measure is fully comparable with the United States quarterly measure. The quarterly estimations of this table are limited to the overall business sector. This aggregate excludes government and non-profit institutions expenditures on primary factors as well as the output of households (including the rental value of owner-occupied dwellings). Corresponding exclusions are also made to labour compensation and hours worked to make output and labour input data consistent with one another. The real output of the business sector is constructed using a Fisher-chained index, after excluding from GDP at market prices the real gross value added of the government sector, of the non-profit institutions and of households (including the rental value of owner-occupied dwellings). This approach is similar to that used for the quarterly productivity of the business sector in the United States. The estimate of the total number of jobs covers four main categories: employee jobs, work owner of an unincorporated business, own account self-employment, and unpaid family jobs. This last category is found mainly in sectors where family firms are important (agriculture and retail trade, in particular). Jobs data are consistent with the System of National Accounts. This is the quarterly average of hours worked for jobs in all categories. The number of hours worked in all jobs is the quarterly average for all jobs times the annual average hours worked in all jobs. According to the retained definition, hours worked means the total number of hours that a person spends working, whether paid or not. In general, this includes regular and overtime hours, breaks, travel time, training in the workplace and time lost in brief work stoppages where workers remain at their posts. On the other hand, time lost due to strikes, lockouts, annual vacation, public holidays, sick leave, maternity leave or leave for personal needs are not included in total hours worked. Labour productivity is a measure of real gross domestic product (GDP) per hour worked. The ratio between total compensation for all jobs, and the number of hours worked. The term hourly compensation" is often used to refer to the total compensation per hour worked." This measures the cost of labour input required to produce one unit of output, and equals labour compensation in current dollars divided by the real output. It is often calculated as the ratio of labour compensation per hour worked and labour productivity. Unit labour cost increases when labour compensation per hour worked increases more rapidly than labour productivity. It is widely used to measure inflation pressures arising from wage growth. Unit non-labour payments are the non-labour payments associated with each unit of output of goods and services, and they are calculated as the non-labour payments divided by the real output. The implicit price deflator is equal to current-dollar output, divided by real output. The output measure is consistent with the Quarterly Income and Expenditure Accounts, prepared by the National Economic Accounts Division. Labor share is equal to the labour compensation divided by current dollar output. The output measure is consistent with the Quarterly Income and Expenditure Accounts, prepared by the National Economic Accounts Division. Current-dollar gross domestic product (GDP) in business sector equals current-dollar GDP in the economy less the gross value added of government, nonprofit institutions, households, and the rental of owner-occupied-dwellings. The output measure is consistent with the Quarterly Income and Expenditure Accounts. The total compensation for all jobs consists of all payments in cash or in kind made by domestic producers to workers for services rendered. It includes wages and salaries and employer's social contributions of employees, plus an imputed labour income for self-employed workers. Non-labour payments are the excess of current-dollar output in the business sector over corresponding labour compensation, and include non-labour costs as well as corporate profits and the profit-type income of proprietors. Non-labour costs include interest, depreciation, rent, and indirect business taxes. Unit labour cost in United States dollars is the equivalent of the ratio of Canadian unit labour cost to the exchange rate. This latter corresponds to the United States dollar value expressed in Canadian dollars.

Demographic trends play a major role in shaping the healthcare landscape, as economic factors and an aging population contribute to fast-rising healthcare spending. While consumers are spending more on healthcare services in the US, healthcare providers are confronting complex challenges related to labor, competition and tech advances. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed healthcare and social assistance providers to unprecedented financial and operational pressures, with the lasting impacts still shaping every corner of the sector in 2024. Providers continue to grapple with workforce shortages intensified by the pandemic, resulting in ongoing staffing and recruitment challenges that pressure wage growth and new strategies to recruit and retain. At the same time, consolidation activity is reshaping the healthcare landscape, with more patients than ever receiving care from massive, integrated health systems rather than independent ones. Meanwhile, social assistance providers are finding it difficult to meet rising demand. Despite this challenging operating environment, revenue has been expanding at a CAGR of 3.1% to an estimated $4.1 trillion over the past five years, with revenue rising an expected 3.2% in 2025. Healthcare and social assistance providers are struggling to address staffing challenges. The pandemic exacerbated existing staffing shortages, as the physical and mental toll of the pandemic pushed some to leave the sector entirely. Persistent labor shortages jeopardize healthcare and social assistance providers' ability to address demand, creating widespread staff burnout, high turnover rates and wage inflation. While the health sector labor market began stabilizing in 2024, alleviating wage pressures, an undersized workforce still leaves hundreds of thousands of jobs open. Statewide and federal initiatives have been enacted to direct investment into building a more robust workforce. Demographic trends will continue to be the driving force behind rising healthcare spending moving forward. However, increasing demand and elevated costs will pressure healthcare and social assistance providers to shift how they operate. Some regulatory measures, like the Inflation Reduction Act, could mitigate rising costs in some areas, specifically pharmaceuticals. Consolidation activity will ramp up as smaller providers join larger health groups to secure larger insurer reimbursements through negotiating power. Digital tools and telehealth will become central in healthcare delivery because of their ability to lower costs, increase capacity, bridge health inequities and improve patient outcomes. In all, sector revenue will grow at a CAGR of 2.6% to reach an estimated $4.7 trillion over the next five years.

The economy of the United Kingdom shrank by 0.1 percent in January 2025, after growing by 0.4 percent in December. As of the most recent month, the UK economy is around 3.4 percent larger than it was in February 2020, just before the start of COVID-19 lockdowns. After a record 19.6 percent decline in GDP in April 2020, the UK economy quickly returned to growth in the following months, and grew through most of 2021. Cost of living crisis lingers into 2025 As of December 2024, just over half of people in the UK reported that their cost of living was higher than it was in the previous month. Although this is a decline from the peak of the crisis in 2022 when over 90 percent of people reported a higher cost of living, households are evidently still under severe pressure. While wage growth has outpaced inflation since July 2023, overall consumer prices were 20 percent higher in late 2024 than they were in late 2021. For food and energy, which lower income households spend more on, late 2024 prices were almost 30 percent higher when compared with late 2021. According to recent estimates, living standards, as measured by changes in disposable income fell by 2.1 percent in 2022/23, but did start to grow again in 2023/24. Late 2023 recession followed by growth in 2024 In December 2023, the UK economy was approximately the same size as it was a year earlier, and struggled to achieve modest growth throughout that year. Going into 2023, a surge in energy costs, as well as high interest rates, created an unfavorable environment for UK consumers and businesses. The inflationary pressures that drove these problems did start to subside, however, with inflation falling to 3.9 percent in November 2023, down from a peak of 11.1 percent in October 2022. Although relatively strong economic growth occurred in the first half of 2024, with GDP growing by 0.7 percent, and 0.4 percent in the first two quarters of the year, zero growth was reported in the third quarter of the year. Long-term issues, such as low business investment, weak productivity growth, and regional inequality, will likely continue to hamper the economy going forward.

In the United States, nonfarm business sector unit labor costs increased by 1.9 percent in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the previous quarter. The data are seasonally adjusted at annual rates. Unit labor costs describe the relationship between compensation per hour and productivity, or real output per hour, and can be used as an indicator of inflationary pressure on producers. Increases in hourly compensation increase unit labor costs; labor productivity increases offset compensation increases and lower unit labor costs.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The aim is to identify and describe how employers are restructuring work and human resource practices under conditions of persistent environmental turbulence. This climate of change in the workplace has been interpreted as the response of employers to environmental changes in competition, technology and regulation. In the 1980s and much of the 1990s, the dominant external pressure was the rapid increase in international trade and finance, and hence in competition. Salient responses by employers included rationalization, downsizing, de-layering and methods of work intensification and labour cost reduction. It is now widely perceived that this phase has been progressively replaced, since about 1995, by one in which the dominant external pressures (and opportunities) come from new technology (ICT). The scope for business innovation is widening in the wake of the Internet and e-commerce, and organisations are searching for the creative and technical talent, which will permit them to make the shift from cost-competition to knowledge-competition.
The regulatory environment has also changed over this period. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the British Government favoured deregulation (or where regulation was increased, as in the case of trade unions, this was to the advantage of employers); and there was strong opposition to the efforts of supranational authorities to regulate the workplace and the employment relationship. In the latter part of the 1990s, however, new regulation of these areas again became prominent, with the national minimum wage and the working time directive being the best-known but by no means the only examples. The re-emergence of regulation reflects the desire of European governments to maintain control of social and employment policy in the face of global competitive pressures and the growth of global businesses. The sample includes establishments with 5 or more employees. Six areas of employer policy have been identified that are likely to shape the workplaces of the future. The six areas of policy that have been chosen to investigate are: organisational and workforce restructuring, reshaping of physical workplaces, the monitoring, reward and control of employees, patterns of communication, working time and family-friendly practices. The research has also been designed to throw light on an overarching theme that unites many of these policy areas: flexibility.


Main Topics:

The basic descriptors of establishment characteristic: size and composition of workforce, sector; policy on deployment of personnel; use of temporary staff; recruitment issues; working practices; recent changes in working practices and plans for the future; working conditions for the staff at the establishment; use of appraisals; use of information technology; legal and regulatory environment.

Description of the current state of social structure and its change during the post-communist transformation.

Main topics of the study are: 1. Employment 2. Self-employment and working independently 3. Additional work 4. Unemployment and housework 5. Occupational history 6. Chances of success and sources of conflicts 7. Opinions about income 8. Opinions about society 9. Privatization and the market 10. Status evaluation and views on social issues 11. Friends 12. Religion 13. Family and household 14. Basic data 15. Political parties and elections: 16. Physical health and psychological items

1. Employment: Occupation; employed and unemployed; worked on farm last year; number of jobs; type of employment; Polish SKZ occupational classification (1993); ISCO 88 Occupational Classification; working hours per week; beginning of current job (year and month); same position in new job than before; beginning of current position (year and month); someone else worked in this position before; supervisory position; number of supervisees; level of supervising; position of respondents’ supervisor; possibility to use office phone for private purposes; possibility to leave workplace for 30 minutes; possibility settle own matters at work; possibility to leave workplace for over an hour; employment started at current firm (year and month); date of establishment of the company; industry classification of company; industry classification of company; size of enterprise (employees working in firm); changes in company: organizational structure, production profile, positions in management, work organization, equipment, workforce composition, ownership; assessment of job security; reason for possible job loss; possibility to start own business with someone else; wish to start own business if receiving inheritance (20000 zlotys; 100000 zlotys); amount respondent would devote for establishing firm; average wage income per month (after taxes); average wage income per month (before taxes); type of employment (second job).

2. Self-employment and working independently: Start of self-employment (year and month); previous owner of the business; working hours per week; employing family members; number of employed non-family members; number of non-family members employed in two to three years; type of business; type of service according to the Polish SKZ occupational classification (1993); cultivated agricultural area; non-cultivated agricultural area; contract to sell agricultural products from farm; average income per month; ownership of business; other partners: someone from family, other persons, foreign firm, Polish firm; obstacles effect on managers effectiveness; pressure from competitors; evaluation of profits compared to similar businesses; type of employment; employing non-family members; number of employed non-family members.

3. Additional work: First additional job: having supervisor in this job, supervisory position, number of supervisees, Polish SKZ occupational classification (1993), job started (year and month), someone worked at that position before, weekly hours of work, average income per month, second additional job: income from another job, average income per month, type of employment, job started (year and month), weekly hours of work.

4. Unemployment and housework: Respondent cannot find suitable job; job-seeking since 1993; periods of job seeking: start of first to third period of job-seeking (year and month), finish of first to third period of job-seeking (year and month), reason for stopping job-seeking; housework as main activity; housework started (year and month); willingness to change housework for a job; sources of income: retirement and welfare; type of welfare benefits.

5. Occupational history: Occupation since 1993; number of jobs since 1993; occupational history from first to fifth job: type of employment, Polish SKZ occupational classification, job started (year and month), respondent worked in the same firm before, weekly hours of work, job quitted (year and month), and reason of job termination.

6. Chances of success and sources of conflicts: Criteria for achieving success in life: ambition, networks, hard work, political connections, coming from a rich family, good education, luck, inherited ability and talent; explanation for outcome in life; sources of conflicts: rich and poor, manual and non-manual workers, managers and employees, urban and rural people, believers and nonbelievers, those in power...

The economy of the United Kingdom grew by 0.4 percent in December 2024, after growing by 0.1 percent in November. As of the most recent month, the UK economy is around 3.5 percent larger than it was in February 2020, just before the start of COVID-19 lockdowns. After a record 19.6 percent decline in GDP in April 2020, the UK economy quickly returned to growth in the following months, and grew through most of 2021. Cost of living crisis lingers into 2025 As of December 2024, just over half of people in the UK reported that their cost of living was higher than it was in the previous month. Although this is a decline from the peak of the crisis in 2022 when over 90 percent of people reported a higher cost of living, households are evidently still under severe pressure. While wage growth has outpaced inflation since July 2023, overall consumer prices were 20 percent higher in late 2024 than they were in late 2021. For food and energy, which lower income households spend more on, late 2024 prices were almost 30 percent higher when compared with late 2021. According to recent estimates, living standards, as measured by changes in disposable income fell by 2.1 percent in 2022/23, but did start to grow again in 2023/24. Late 2023 recession followed by growth in 2024 In December 2023, the UK economy was approximately the same size as it was a year earlier, and struggled to achieve modest growth throughout that year. Going into 2023, a surge in energy costs, as well as high interest rates, created an unfavorable environment for UK consumers and businesses. The inflationary pressures that drove these problems did start to subside, however, with inflation falling to 3.9 percent in November 2023, down from a peak of 11.1 percent in October 2022. Although relatively strong economic growth occurred in the first half of 2024, with GDP growing by 0.7 percent, and 0.4 percent in the first two quarters of the year, zero growth was reported in the third quarter of the year. Long-term issues, such as low business investment, weak productivity growth, and regional inequality, will likely continue to hamper the economy going forward.

Work satisfaction and description of job demands. Information on use of alcohol and use of tobacco as well as social contacts.

Topics: work and occupational satisfaction; detailed information about type and frequency of contacts with colleagues or suppliers and customers in the course of work; work conditions, work description, work demands and detailed description of work carried out; work under pressure of time; piecework; satisfaction with social contacts during work; arrangement of the assignment of work; work satisfaction (scale) and judgement on recognition of achievement experienced; problems with colleagues; leadership duties; self-determination of the course of work; concentration demands at work; benefit of the activity for the ´public´; attitude to acceptance of responsibility; work orientation; time worked each week including overtime; time expended for the way to work; taking work home; flexible arrangement of working hours and establishing of work breaks; possibility of injuries and damage to material in the work; perceived work stress; adequate training for current activity and perceived prospects of promotion in comparison with colleagues; career orientation; relationship of wages and achievement; satisfaction with wage income; difficulties to find a comparable position; lay-offs in the company.

Assessment of personal condition of health; type and frequency of leisure activities; visits to the doctor in the last year; impact of accidents; sleep disturbances; general use of medication as well as use of sleeping pills and tranquilizers and pain-killers; use of stimulants; smoking habits; attempts to quit smoking; drinking habits in a restaurant; use of alcohol in manner and extent in the course of the last week; motive and place for use of alcohol; intensity of use of alcohol (scale); age at begin of use of alcohol; use of alcohol by parents, alcohol at meals; times of reduced and increased use of alcohol; alcohol at work; occupational reasons (inviting customers) for use of alcohol; use of alcohol with colleagues. Satisfaction with occupation and job; most important reason to change place of work; perceived job security; atmosphere at work; company size and company employment; satisfaction with employer benefits; employment in the evening and on the weekend; active participation in clubs; frequency of contacts with friends as well as with colleagues outside of work; satisfaction with housing; most important concerns; significant change in work and in private life; attitude to political participation (scale).

In the form of a written survey under supervision the manifest fear scale (MAS) as well as a list of questions on physical and psychological complaints was presented.

Demography: marital status; number of children; religious denomination; frequency of church attendance; school education; occupational position; household income; composition of household; year of birth; size in cm; weight in kg; occupation of father; employment of wife; growing up in the country or in the city; Swiss citizenship; year of moving to Switzerland; growing up in a Swiss region; nationality.

Interviewer rating: reliability of respondent; length of interview; date of interview; reaction of respondent to interview; address and telephone number of respondent; name of interviewer.

Inflation in Myanmar dropped to a five-year low in 2021, settling at 3.64 percent. This is down from a fairly high spike in 2016, expected to converge to a steady state around 7.8 percent in the coming years. For a developing economy, this is an acceptable level, though Myanmar’s central bankers would probably prefer one or two percentage points less.

What is inflation?

Inflation is the rise in prices over time. This is often caused by economic growth, and economists consider low, stable growth to be a sign of a healthy economy. The unemployment rate can also cause inflation if it is too low because businesses have to offer higher wages to attract workers. The firms raise prices to pay these higher wages, driving up inflation.

Myanmar may be different

While the unemployment rate is very low, other indicators may reveal that the labor market still has some slack. Myanmar does not publish the workforce particiaption rate, but one can infer by the low rate of urbanization that many workers may engage in subsistance agriculture or simply not search for jobs, keeping them out of the unemployment statistic. Similarly, the low gross domestic product (GDP) per capita may cause workers to stay with a job that is not a good match simply because they do not think they can find another. The hope is that the higher inflation rate will have upward pressure on wages, bringing more wealth to the people of Myanmar.

The survey charted the working conditions, welfare, health, and occupational health care of fixed-term and subsidised employees in seven Finnish municipalities. The research project was funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund and the municipalities participating in the survey. First, respondents were asked about their occupation, workplace, working hours and working time, present employment contract, and economic activity prior to this contract. Non-permanent employees were asked what they think will happen when the present employment contracts ends. Respondents evaluated the impact of non-permanent contract on job commitment, feelings of insecurity, right to express opinions, training and development opportunities, workplace conflicts, wage level, fringe benefits, etc. They were also asked whether their trade union was interested in promoting the interests of non-permanent employees. Respondents' use of occupational health care was charted with several questions. Visits to a doctor during the past year were investigated. One theme focused on the respondent's job: workload, pressure, degree of variety, work pace, requirements, etc. Respondents were asked at what stage they are informed about forthcoming changes in their work, and whether they themselves can participate in the planning of these changes. Some questions covered job autonomy, e.g., to what extent respondents can decide how and when to do their job, at what pace, when to take a break or a holiday. Perceptions of working environment were studied by asking respondents to evaluate the workplace climate: was it supportive, tense or gossiping, could fellow workers be trusted, was there any bullying, etc. Respondents were asked what would happen at their workplace if they had to take sick leave for a week. The survey also carried a set of statements relating to management and supervision practices at the respondent's place of work. Respondents' self-perceived health and working capacity were surveyed, likewise long-term illnesses or disabilities diagnosed by a doctor. One question investigated accidents at work. Mental well-being and life control were charted with a number of questions pertaining to, for example, perceived feelings of stress, worthlessness, depression or happiness, indifference to everything, inability to sleep, make decisions or cope generally. Some questions focused on social relations. Division of responsibility between spouses concerning certain domestic tasks were examined. Respondents were asked from whom they would receive help and support, if needed. Background variables included respondent's basic and vocational education, marital status, occupation, gender, year of birth, municipality of residence, household size, and economic activity of the spouse. The data can be combined with the year 2002 data by using the Id variable.

The UK has an ageing population – for the Residential Nursing Care industry, this is an opportunity for growth with demand for more beds expanding. Homes have upped their average weekly fees, contributing to revenue. High inflation over the two years through 2023-24 has raised fees further. However, state involvement has limited growth, which has kept care fees artificially low for many nursing home residents. Residential nursing care revenue is anticipated to remain stable at £9.3 billion over the five years through 2024-25, including revenue growth of 3% in 2024-25. Weak government funding and wage cost pressures caused by the rising National Living Wage (which will increase to £12.21 in April 2025) have constrained profitability. Labour supply shortages caused by high turnover rates have been of particular concern. According to Skills For Care, the job vacancy rate in 2023-24 in the adult care sector was 8.3%, way above the average rate in the UK economy. That being said, the vacancy rate is declining thanks mainly to a government-driven recruitment drive to attract overseas workers, which has been helped by reducing visa requirements. Rising real household disposable income had supported more self-funded residents, aiding residential nursing care. However, data from the ONS revealed the percentage of self-funded residents fell from 36.7% in 2019-20 to 34.9% over the year through February 2022. In the year through February 2023, this has risen again to 37% of the 372,035 care home residents. Families are still struggling with the rising cost of living, reducing the number of people able to afford private care home costs, which has somewhat constrained revenue growth. Over the five years through 2029-30, residential and nursing care revenue is estimated to expand at a compound annual rate of 4.1% to £11.4 billion. Robust demand from an ageing population will support industry growth. However, plans for adult social care reforms are to be released in two stages (the first in 2026 and the second in 2028), which has caused greater uncertainty for the sector's future. Staff shortage concerns will continue to plague nursing care.

Revenue in Europe’s Call Centre Operations industry is anticipated to contract at a compound annual rate of 5.0% to €30.0 billion over the five years through 2024. This is predominately driven by increased usage of chatbots and AI by clients and lacklustre business and consumer sentiment. A growing number of companies are leveraging technology to enhance customer engagement and diversify their sources of income, which has resulted in increased demand for call centres. In 2024, revenue is projected to contract by 2.5% as companies remain cautious of inflationary pressures and underperforming consumer and business sentiment. While Eurozone inflation performed better than the European Central Bank initially expected in 2023, inflationary pressures will likely persist through 2024. This will prove difficult for the industry, as clients cut back the number of call centre agents they employ, depleting customer satisfaction with the industry. As business sentiment across Europe picks up, call centres will see profitability challenges due to staff shortages, boosting the need for automation or higher wages. Revenue is estimated to expand at a compound annual rate of 3.7% over the five years through 2029 to €36.0 billion. With the improvement of the Eurozone economy, there will be an uptick in business activity and consumer demand, propelling companies to use more services provided by call centres. Businesses might increase their operations, introduce new products, or outsource work more than before, thereby fostering a greater need for call centres. Profitability will be under fire in the coming years as staff shortages continue, forcing the industry’s hand in significantly increasing automation of its services or raising wages.