Accommodation and food services industry leads wage growth for Australia
Wages and salaries across Australia rose 2.6% in the December quarter, according to the latest data from the country's Statistics Bureau.
Official business indicator data revealed that accommodation and food services industry marked the highest wage increase in the December quarter with 7.7%.
This is followed by the arts and recreation services sector with 7.4%. The following sectors also reported the following increases:
- Transport, postal, and warehousing (6.3%)
- Construction (4.4%)
- Financial and insurance services (4.3%)
- Electricity, gas, water, and waste services (3.7%)
- Retail trade (3.3%)
- Administrative and support services (3.3%)
- Mining (2.7%)
- Health care and social assistance (2.2%)
- Wholesale Trade (1.6%)
- Professional, scientific, and technical services (1.2%)
- Rental, hiring, and real estate services (0.4%)
Wages and salaries in the manufacturing industry remained "relatively unchanged" in the December quarter, according to the ABS.
Meanwhile, wage drops were reported in the sectors of information media and telecommunications (1.1%) as well as education and training (0.8%).
Annually, the wage price index rose to 3.3% in 2022, according to previous ABS data.
Company profits soar
The quarterly estimates also revealed that company gross operating profits rose 10.6% in the December quarter, while inventories fell 0.2%.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), citing Australia Institute economist Jim Stanford, said the findings indicate that excessive corporate profits are the main driver of inflation, not wages.
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"Wage growth is clearly not contributing to inflation. Any wage rises in 2022 and early 2023 have been eaten up by price rises and interest rate rises. Real wages are going backwards, a shocking 4.5%. More needs to be done to get wages moving," said ACTU Secretary Sally McManus in a statement.