Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the average daily wage of construction workers was MOP529 in the first quarter of 2010, same as that in the previous quarter. The average daily wage of skilled & semi-skilled workers stayed unchanged at MOP566, of which scaffolders (MOP679), welders (MOP649), plant operators (MOP638) and concreters and drain layers (MOP629) were earning higher average wages; meanwhile, the average daily wage of unskilled workers (MOP313) registered a decrease of 12.3%. After discounting the effect of inflation, the wage index of construction workers for the first quarter of 2010 was 94.7 in real terms, down by 1.9% over the previous quarter. As regards construction materials, the average price of spiral and round reinforcing steel bars decreased slightly by 0.6% quarter-to-quarter to MOP4,226 per tonne, and that of Portland cement fell by 2.5% to MOP625 per tonne; however, the average price of sand registered an increase of 6.7% to MOP80 per cubic metre. In the first quarter of 2010, the price index of construction materials for residential buildings rose by 4.5% quarter-to-quarter to 132.4; in particular, the price indices of electric wires and aluminium increased by 14.2% and 8.6% respectively, while the price indices of steel and concrete pipe piles went down by 0.6% and 0.7%. Compared with the same quarter of 2009, the price index of construction materials for residential buildings registered an increase of 4.1%.
