Lackluster job market and salary growth in Australia (April 2016)

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released its commentary for April 2016, covering the job market and salaries in Australia.

The overall unemployment rate remained unchanged at around 5.7%. However, youth unemployment is at 12.3% and youth underemployment is at 20.3%.

There was an increase of 20,200 in the number of part time employees and the full time employment figure reduced by 9,300.

According to FTI Consulting, approximately 10,300 business entered into insolvency/administration in the 12 months to March 2016. This is a year on year increase of 18%.

Some of the more publicized insolvencies include Queensland Nickel, Dick Smith (electronic retail chain), Laura Ashley (furnishing and fashion retailer), Arrium (iron ore), Round the World Experts (travel division), Quickflix (video on demand), Brand New Media (marketing company) and Animal Supplies Group (pet supplies distributor).

In the quarter ending March 2016, wages increased by 0.4% in the private sector and 0.5% in the public sector. According to the ABS, this is the slowest quarterly wage growth in the last 18 years.

  • Media, IT, telecom and real estate industries saw wage growth of 0.1%.
  • Training and education witnessed a 1% increase.
  • Postal, transport and warehousing saw wage increases of 0.7% in the March quarter.
  • Mining wages increased by 1.4%.

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