Snapshot of the current state of the workforce

Recent data has emerged that paints a picture of the current state of the workforce in Australia. There are a variety of trends influencing both employers and employees.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released extensive data recently, allowing us to gauge what factors influenced the workforce in the month of July.

Unemployment

Unfortunately, employment dropped and unemployment rose in July.

The unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 3.7 per cent. Meanwhile, the employment-to-population ratio fell 0.2 percentage points to 64.3 per cent. The participation rate also decreased 0.1 percentage point to 66.7 per cent.

Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics, commented: “With employment dropping by around 15,000 people and the number of unemployed increasing by 36,000 people, the unemployment rate rose to 3.7 per cent.”

“The fall in employment follows an average monthly increase of around 42,000 people during the first half of this year. Employment is still around 387,000 people higher than last July.”

According to Mr Jarvis, the school holidays influenced the results.

“July includes the school holidays, and we continue to see some changes around when people take their leave and start or leave a job,” he explained.

“It’s important to consider this when looking at month-to-month changes, compared with the usual seasonal pattern. The only other fall in employment in 2023 was in April, which also included school holidays.”

Despite these results, the workforce is still much stronger than it was pre-pandemic.

“While unemployment increased by 36,000 people in July, to 541,000, it was still around 172,000 lower than before the pandemic,” said Mr Jarvis.

“Despite these falls, both indicators were still well above pre-pandemic levels and close to their historical highs in May.”

Weekly earnings

The average weekly earnings rose in May, resulting in the strongest annual growth since May 2013.

“The annual increase of 3.9 per cent, or $68 per week, represented continuing strong annual growth in average weekly earnings for full-time workers,” said Mr Jarvis.

“Other than a brief spike in average earnings early in the pandemic, when lower-paying jobs were particularly impacted, this is the strongest annual growth since May 2013. The recent rise in average earnings reflects strong wage growth in the education and training and healthcare and social assistance industries.”

Both public and private sectors saw growth at a similar rate of 1.7 per cent. However, the public sector saw a higher average pay of $1,999 per week, compared to $1,797 for the private sector.

The highest average-paid states were Western Australia and the ACT, at $2,039 and $2,028 per week, respectively. The lowest were Tasmania and South Australia, at $1,619 and $1,678 per week.

As far as industries go, mining was by far the highest paid, with an average of $2,854 per week. This was followed by information media and communications at $2,318 and professional, scientific and technical services at $2,171.

Meanwhile, the lowest-paid industry was accommodation and food services, at an average of $1,347 per week.

Wages

Wages also saw an increase in the June quarter, with the wage price index (WPI) rising 0.8 per cent. This brought the increase to 3.6 per cent annually.

Michelle Marquardt, ABS head of prices statistics, said the rising cost of living affected the results: “For the third consecutive quarter, wages grew 0.8 per cent.

“Wage rises from regular June quarter salary reviews were higher than in the same period last year, as recent cost of living and labour market pressures were incorporated into organisation-wide decisions on wages.”

This increase was slightly lower than the 3.7 per cent recorded in March, highlighting a minor ease. According to the ABS, the growth rate is similar to what it was in 2012.

“Compared to a year ago, fewer jobs had wage increases this quarter; however, on average, the increases received were higher. In particular, the share of jobs which received increases above 3 per cent was the highest for a June quarter since 2012,” outlined Ms Marquardt.