Advertised salaries in Australia 'outpacing' inflation

Postings also up slightly in December, report shows

Advertised salaries in Australia 'outpacing' inflation

Advertised salaries in Australia went up year-on-year to outpace the country's inflation rate.

The latest SEEK Advertised Salary Index (ASI) revealed a 4.5% growth in the year to December, the same as the year to November.

Matt Cowgill, SEEK senior economist, said this shows advertised salaries are rising faster than prices again.

"After a long period of declining real wages, the SEEK ASI is now rising in real terms again, with 4.5% advertised salary growth outpacing inflation at 4.3%," Cowgill said in a media release.

Australia's inflation recently slowed to 4.3% in the 12 months to November 2023, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

This is down from the 4.9% in October and is the smallest annual increase since January 2022, ABS said.

By quarter, advertised salaries went up 0.9% in the final quarter of 2023, while increasing 0.3% in October, November, and December 20203.

"Although this is solid growth, it's a clear slowdown from the previous quarter, when Fair Work Commission decisions delivered a bump to wages growth," Cowgill said.

Job ads up

Meanwhile, SEEK also revealed that national job ads went up 0.5% month-on-month in December 2023.

Despite this increase, December's national job ads were down -17.4% when compared with the same period in 2022.

By location, Tasmania saw the highest monthly increase in job ads with 5.6%. Other states that registered an increase include:

  • Northern Territory (1.6%)
  • Queensland (0.7%)
  • New South Wales (0.4%)
  • Western Australia (0.2%)

Locations that saw a decrease in job ads include the Australian Capital Territory (-2.5%), Victoria (-1.7%), and South Australia (-0.9%).

The hospitality and tourism industry saw the biggest monthly increase in job ads with 3.7%, while the education and training industry logged the biggest decline with -3.5%.

With national job ads only slightly increasing monthly, applications for job ads monthly went up by six per cent, the report said.