KEY POINTS:
These are good times to be in the market for a new job - or aiming to be paid more for the one you currently have.
Unemployment is at a record low, and wage and salary earners have enjoyed pay increases that have outstripped inflation.
A report due this week is likely to show the country's jobless rate remaining at a record low 3.6 per cent.
And figures out today show salary and wage rates, as measured by the labour cost index (LCI), rose 3.1 per cent in the year to the end of September.
At the same time the quarterly employment survey (QES) for the same period, also published by Statistics New Zealand (SNZ), showed the annual increase in total gross earnings exceeded the annual increase in total paid hours.
That resulted in a 3.9 per cent annual increase in average total hourly earnings, to $23.10, SNZ said.
The LCI showed salary and wage rates, including overtime, for the private sector rose 3.2 per cent in the year to the September quarter, while in the public sector they increased 3 per cent.
Steady growth in earnings was also evident in the QES, where seasonally adjusted total gross earnings increased 6.1 per cent for the September year.
Employment, as measured by full-time equivalent employees remained relatively unchanged for the September quarter but increased 2.5 per cent for the September year.
The LCI showed private sector wages and salaries, either including or excluding overtime, up 0.9 per cent in the September quarter from the previous three months.
In the public sector the quarterly rise was 1.3 per cent.
According to the QES, private sector average total hourly earnings rose 1.3 per cent from the previous quarter and 3.5 per cent over the year to $21.59.
A 0.1 per cent slip left the number of full-time equivalent employees around 1.4 million.
The QES results showed the continued growth in business demand for labour, SNZ said.
The 2.5 per cent increase in full-time equivalent employees for the year was mainly driven by the property and business services and construction industries.
An expected, seasonal downturn in manufacturing activities had reduced the industries' contribution to average total hourly earnings during the September quarter, SNZ said.
According to the LCI, the industry groups with the largest annual increases in salary and wage rates, including overtime, were mining, which rose 4.9 per cent, followed by finance and insurance up 4.8 per cent.
Other notable movements were 3.1 per cent rises in both education and wholesale trade.
ASB Bank economist Daniel Wills said today's figures suggested the labour market remained tight.
Those ongoing wage pressures were going to underpin medium term inflation, he said.
Goldman Sachs JBWere economist Shamubeel Eaqub said the data presented a contrasting picture, with the LCI pretty strong, while the QES was coming off.
"It looks like cost pressures are still there but the earnings impact from this is waning on the household sector," he said.
"Also the activity side of things was pretty weak, with paid hours growing by only 0.2 per cent in the quarter, consistent with our view that GDP in the third quarter was pretty soft."
The LCI measures changes in salary and wage rates for a fixed quantity and quality of labour input, while the QES average earnings statistics reflect not only changes in pay rates, but also compositional and other changes in the paid workforce.
- NZPA
