Australian wages growth holds steady, for a change

The Australian wage price index for the June quarter is out, and it’s a slight beat at +2.1% year-on-year.

While the index remains at a record low, the market had been expecting growth to slow further to just +2.0%. So it has avoided a fall into further weakness, an outcome expected by many economists.

In seasonally adjusted terms, private sector wages growth was +2.0% in the year to June, in line with the March result.

Public sector wages growth fell from +2.5% to +2.4%. Across all sectors, wages rose 0.5% in the three months to June. In trend terms, wages also rose 2.1% year-on-year.

Across Australia’s industries, wages growth was strongest in the electricity sector at 2.6%, and in education and training at 2.5%.

Growth was slowest in administrative and support services at 1.4%, and wages growth in construction was also weak at 1.5%.

*This post has been updated to reflect the effect of revisions in the seasonally adjusted data.

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