THE Republic's public sector employees saw their average weekly wage rise by 10.9 per cent in the year to December 2000. When health employees are included, this figure falls slightly to 10.5 per cent.

There were 303,500 people employed in the public sector at the end of last year, up 5.5 per cent on the same stage of 1999. This rise can be attributed to 2,900 recruits in the civil service, 1,800 in the semi-state sector, 1,500 in education and 1,200 employees in regional bodies.