Wages of Construction Workers and Prices of Construction Materials for 2nd Quarter 2010

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the average daily wage of construction workers was MOP507 in the second quarter of 2010, down by 4.2% quarter-to-quarter. The average daily wage of skilled & semi-skilled workers (MOP537) fell by 5.1%, of which plant operators (MOP667), scaffolders (MOP643), concreters and drain layers (MOP640) and levellers (MOP637) were earning higher average wages; meanwhile, the average daily wage of unskilled workers (MOP340) registered an increase of 8.6%. After discounting the effect of inflation, the wage index of construction workers for the second quarter of 2010 was 93.2 in real terms, down by 1.6% over the previous quarter. As regards construction materials, the average price of spiral and round reinforcing steel bars increased by 15.5% quarter-to-quarter to MOP4,882 per tonne, and that of Portland cement rose by 4.5% to MOP653 per tonne; however, the average price of concrete registered a decrease of 2.2% to MOP308 per cubic metre. In the second quarter of 2010, the price index of construction materials for residential buildings rose by 4.5% quarter-to-quarter to 138.3; in particular, the price indices of steel and timber increased by 14.9% and 1.9% respectively, while the price indices of aluminium and concrete went down by 2.4% and 1.9%. Compared with the same quarter of 2009, the price index of construction materials for residential buildings registered an increase of 14.0%.