In order to better reflect recent wage levels of construction workers, the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) releases average daily wage and wage index of local construction workers starting from the first quarter of 2012; meanwhile, the wage index of construction workers has been rebased using 2010 as the base period.

Information from DSEC indicated that the average daily wage of overall construction workers decreased by 3.4% quarter-to-quarter to MOP563 in the first quarter of 2012. The average daily wage of skilled & semi-skilled workers (MOP568) fell by 4.2%, while that of unskilled workers (MOP373) went up by 1.9%. Analyzed by occupations, average daily wages of electricians & electrical workers (MOP565) and bricklayers & plasterers (MOP525) decreased by 9.9% and 3.1% respectively over the previous quarter; however, wage of carpenters (MOP569) increased by 8.2%. Furthermore, the average daily wage of local construction workers rose by 1.3% quarter-to-quarter to MOP646.

After discounting the effect of inflation, wage index of construction workers was 89.5 in real terms, down by 4.0% quarter-to-quarter; wage index of local construction workers increased slightly by 0.1% to 98.9 in real terms.

As regards construction materials, in the first quarter of 2012, the average price of concrete (MOP440 per cubic metre) increased by 8.3% quarter-to-quarter, but that of spiral & round reinforcing steel bars (MOP6,036 per tonne) decreased by 1.7%. The price index of construction materials for residential buildings rose slightly by 0.9% quarter-to-quarter to 120.7.