With the expense level of living in Dublin at the moment, you'd be forgiven for feeling down in the dumps about wages right now.

Good news is needed, and thankfully some was released today regarding the average weekly earnings for Irish workers; it's actually…*deep breathing* … INCREASED.

Increased? We haven't heard that word in a long time. Too long.

According to the Central Statistics Office of Ireland, the average weekly earnings in the fourth quarter of 2018 were €761.64, which is a four percent increase. We'll take what we can get, eh?

The preliminary estimates of the Earnings and Labour Costs Quarterly release were published by the Central Statistics Office on Monday, and the increase is from the same period in 2017.

It's an increase of just under €20 per week from the figure taken from the third quarter of last year.

Average hourly earnings increased from €22.60 in the fourth quarter of 2017 to €23.46 in the fourth quarter of 2018. However, the figures represent gross amounts before deductions for PRSI, tax and other levies.

The average weekly earnings for Irish employees in the public sector increased to €966.40 in the fourth quarter of last year, while average weekly earnings increased in all 13 sectors of the economy in the same time frame. 

The Information and Communication sector saw the highest average weekly earnings in Ireland, with a weekly figure of €1,175.46, followed by the Financial, Insurance and Real Estate activities sector at €1,084.89. We're not jealous, though.

The lowest average weekly earnings were €360.73 in the Accommodation and Food Service activities sector and €493.12 in the Arts, Entertainment, Recreation and other service activities sector. (That's us…Oh sh*t…)