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Wage growth still slipping
New information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed that Australian workers are continuing to struggle for a pay rise.

Wage growth still slipping
New information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed that Australian workers are continuing to struggle for a pay rise.

Pay packets grew by 2.2 per cent in the year to September, falling further behind the long-term growth trend of 3.3 per cent.
In seasonally adjusted terms, wages grew by 0.5 per cent for the September quarter.
It’s a slight fall from the 0.6 per cent quarterly growth in the year to June.
Chief economist at the ABS Bruce Hockman said “the rate of annual wage growth eased slightly in September after being stable over the past year, continuing to grow at a slightly faster rate than consumer prices over the past year”.
Public sector wage growth has continued to outpace the private sector, having grown by 2.5 per cent, compared with 2.2 per cent.
The ABS indicated that the September quarter usually has the highest growth as the Fair Work Commission’s annual wage review, enterprise agreements and annual financial salary reviews all kick in.
It said that this year’s wage growth was triggered by enterprise agreements and financial salary review, while the Fair Work Commission’s review had a lesser impact.
Victoria had the highest through the year growth of 2.8 per cent, while Western Australia recorded the lowest at just 1.6 per cent for the fifth consecutive quarter.
Weighing in on the analysis, Indeed has outlined that a rise in unemployment for the September quarter led to weakening salary growth for employees.
Despite the appearance of lower wage growth, Indeed’s APAC economist, Callam Pickering, said that in real-world terms, the wages of Australians have increased significantly.
In a tweet, Mr Pickering said: “Wage growth, adjusted for inflation, rose by 0.8 per cent over the past year.”
“With inflation now so low, real wage growth has climbed well above its average over the past six years.”
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