BRUSSELS, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Euro zone labour costs jumped in the second quarter, led by rises in industry and the construction sector, despite a hefty fall in employment and increasing joblessness.
Hourly labour costs in the 16-country euro area rose 4.0 percent in the April-June quarter against the same period of 2008, up from a 3.6 percent rise in the first quarter, European Union statistics office Eurostat said on Tuesday.
Euro zone wages grew by 3.9 percent in the same period, up from a 3.4 percent gain in the first quarter, the data showed.
Euro zone employment in the second quarter fell 0.5 percent from the previous three months, or by 702,000 people, to 145.6 million. Unemployment rose to 9.4 percent of the workforce in June from 9.2 percent in April.
Labour costs grew fastest in Greece and Spain -- by 6.6 and 6.0 percent respectively, but the euro zone's biggest economy, Germany, was not far behind with a 5.5 percent increase.
Total hourly labour costs grew by 5.3 percent in industry, led by Germany, where they soared by 7.5 percent. In France, industry labour costs as a whole and wages in particular remained unchanged in the second quarter.
In construction, Spain saw the biggest, 8.4 percent increase in labour costs despite the collapse of its building sector in the wake of the global credit crunch.
Germany had the second-biggest increase -- 5.6 percent.
The services sector, which generates more than two thirds of the euro zone's gross domestic product, showed the slowest labour cost growth of the three, up 3.2 percent against the previous year. (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, editing by Dale Hudson)