All major OECD economies recorded moderate growth in Unit Labour Costs for market services for the first quarter of 2008 (no estimate available for the United Kingdom).

The picture at the national level remains diverse in market services however with growth rates varying between 0.2 percent for Japan and 2.1 percent for Italy. Indeed within the OECD area the range widens, with Korea recording a decline, growth falling to -0.4 percent, and Slovakia recording growth increasing to 2.5 percent.

Within industry, growth in Unit Labour Costs has continued to increase. The zone aggregations OECD area and Major Seven have both shown increases since the fourth quarter of 2007, from 0.1 to 0.5 percent and 0.2 to 0.5 percent respectively. However, within the Major Seven some major OECD economies are still recording negative growth for the first quarter of 2008: France -0.1 percent and Germany -0.3 percent.

This contrasts with Japan and the United States which both recorded positive growth in the activity industry for the first quarter of 2008 (0.6 and 0.3 percent) after periods of negative growth (6 years in the case of Japan) and Canada and Italy where growth has continued to increase; 2.4 and 1.3 percent respectively.