Photo courtesy of the ABC.
The seasonally adjusted Wage Price Index (WPI) rose 0.5 per cent in the March quarter 2015 and 2.3 per cent over the last year, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The through the year rise of 2.3 per cent, seasonally adjusted, is the lowest rate of wages growth since the series began. The through the year series commenced in the September quarter 1998.
Private sector seasonally adjusted wage growth in the March quarter was 0.4 per cent and Public sector wages grew 0.5 per cent. Over the last year Public sector wages grew at a faster rate than the Private sector, 2.4 per cent compared to 2.2 per cent.
Wages growth across most industries has slowed in the March quarter 2015. The smallest quarterly rise across all industries was the Administrative and support services industry, where wages rose 0.1 per cent.
The Education & training industry had the largest quarterly wage rise of all industries, 1.0 per cent in the March quarter 2015. Even so, this result was the lowest March quarter wage growth for Education and training since March quarter 2002.