Wages growth has softened in the December quarter, expanding by just 0.5 per cent – the same as in the September quarter.
Total hourly rates of pay, excluding bonuses, rose by a seasonally adjusted 2.2 per cent year-on-year, according to Wednesday’s figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
“The seasonally adjusted quarterly rise of 0.5 per cent extended the period of moderate growth observed throughout 2019, and was influenced by the relative stability of the labour under-utilisation rate,” ABS chief economist Bruce Hockman said.
For the first time since 2012, private sector wages grew at a faster rate than the public sector (0.5 compared to 0.4 per cent), in original terms.
Over the 12 months to the December quarter, both private and public sector wages rose 2.2 per cent.
“The tepid pace of growth across the board suggests that there is still plenty of slack in the economy,” Chief Economist for BIS Oxford Economics, Dr Sarah Hunter, said.
“There are potentially some very early signs of the impact of the bushfires and more recently the coronavirus outbreak.”
Across industries, annual wage growth in 2019 ranged from 1.6 per cent for the information media and telecommunication services industry to 3.1 per cent for the health care and social assistance industry.
Victoria recorded the highest through the year growth of 2.7 per cent, while Western Australia recorded the lowest for the sixth consecutive quarter (1.7 per cent).
-with AAP
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