The seasonally adjusted Wage Price Index (WPI) rose 0.6 per cent in December 2017 for the second consecutive quarter which, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Chief Economist Bruce Hockman, reflects falling unemployment and increased job vacancy. The ABS released wage figures on Wednesday to show an overall annual increase of 2.1 per cent across all industries. Ranging from 1.4 per cent for the mining industry to 2.8 per cent for healthcare and social assistance industry, the highest state-based increased was in Victoria at 2.4 per cent and the lowest was NT at only 1.1 per cent.
Weakness in mining and retail belie a very positive outcome for public sector employees. Most of the WPI growth was due to increased pay for government employees?—?mainly in the health industry. Annual public sector pay has now outpaced that of the private sector for the past four years and, considering that the private sector creates more than four out of five jobs, it follows that the annual wage increase of 1.9 per cent was considerably overshadowed by the 2.4 per cent increase for the public sector.
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