There was a 0.3% growth in payroll jobs as of 10 June, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported. This increase followed a 1.1% rise in the previous month.
“We saw a broadly similar pattern in the latest data to that seen last year, with slower growth in payroll jobs between mid-May and mid-June following the recovery from the low around the Easter holiday period,” said Bjorn Jarvis (pictured), ABS head of labour statistics.
“Over the most recent year of data, up to mid-June 2023, payroll jobs grew by 4.7 per cent. This was broadly in step with the annual growth of 4.5 per cent we saw in the year to mid-June 2022.”
The largest rises in payroll jobs during the month to mid-June period was in the Northern Territory, which posted an increase of up to 0.9%. This was followed by South Australia with a 0.6% increase. The only jurisdiction that had a decrease was Tasmania, which was down by 0.2%.
In the year to mid-June 2023, Western Australia recorded the largest growth of payroll jobs, which reached up to 5.8%. On the other hand, the Australian Capital Territory saw the lowest, with its increase only reaching 3.8%.
“At this time of the year it’s useful to take a longer view of the data, to gauge how the labour market is faring,” Jarvis said.
Around 78% of payroll jobs were held in 10 of the 19 industries. As of mid-June, the 10 largest employing industries for payroll jobs were manufacturing, construction, wholesale trade, retail trade, accommodation and food services, public administration and safety, education and training, and health care and social assistance, the ABS report showed.
There was a variation in the changes over the month to mid-June 2023 when it comes to the payroll jobs throughout different industries. The largest increases were in education and training, which was up by 1.7%. This was followed by healthcare and social services, which increased by 0.7%. The largest decreases were in accommodation and food services, which was down by 0.6%. Wholesale trade closely followed with a decrease of 0.3%.
“It can be more challenging to interpret short-term changes in the labour market from this data around June and July. As payroll reporting becomes more complete, there tends to be a slightly higher level of revision than usual across this period,” Jarvis said.
