Weekly income increases in industry and farming
L’Estrange asked about 1979 weekly income increases in industry and farming. Moore reported a 15.2% rise in industrial workers’ average weekly earnings from March 1978 to March 1979, but said no comparable agricultural series was available; the Chair then postponed Questions 4 and 5.
asked the Taoiseach the average weekly increase in 1979 in the incomes of people (a) in industry and (b) farming.
Comment on this
The data available for the industrial sector relate to the earnings of industrial workers in the transportable goods industries. The increase in average weekly earnings of all industrial workers was 15.2 per cent in the 12-month period from March 1978 to March 1979. The average weekly earnings at March 1979, as published in the "Industrial Inquiries—First and Second Quarters 1979" was £76.64. These are the latest figures available at this time, but results for June 1979 will be published within the next two weeks.
No comparable series exists in respect of agricultural earnings. Information is, however, available for the total income arising in agriculture; this covers wages and salaries of employees and income from self-employment and other trading income as defined in the national accounts. There are a number of difficulties in using the sectoral income estimates to derive average income per head figures but it is provisionally estimated that there was a decrease of about 1 per cent between 1978 and 1979 in the total income arising in agriculture adjusted for the change in the number of persons engaged in farmwork— aggregates which are not strictly comparable in scope and coverage. The average income per person, on this basis, for 1979 was £76.31 per week.
