Wages and salaries still rising, says Stats NZ

Salaries and wages are still rising, though at a slower pace, with the biggest rises in the education, health, mining and agriculture sectors.

The labour cost index released today showed that salary and wage rates, including overtime, rose 3.3 per cent in the March quarter when compared with the same quarter a year ago, Statistics New Zealand said.

This was slightly lower than the 3.5 per cent rise in the December 2008 quarter from a year ago, which was revised from an initial 3.3 per cent.

Private sector salary and wages, including overtime, increased 3.1 per cent in the March quarter from a year ago compared to 4.3 per cent in the public sector.

In the March quarter, salary and wage rates, including overtime, increased 0.6 per cent, the lowest quarterly increase in two years. The public and private sectors both recorded quarterly rises of 0.6 per cent.

Salary and ordinary time wage rates rose 3.4 per cent in the quarter from the same quarter last year. In the public sector the rise was 4.3 per cent, in the private sector it was 3 per cent.

A breakdown of annual wage increases, including overtime, showed a 5.7 per cent rise in the education sector, a 4.4 per cent rise in health and community services sector, 4.3 per cent in mining and 4 per cent in agriculture, forestry and fishing.

Unemployment figures are due tomorrow.

According to the Quarterly Employment Survey for the three months to March, published on Monday, fulltime equivalent employees (FTEs), filled jobs and seasonally adjusted total paid hours all decreased from a year earlier.

It was the second consecutive quarter to show an annual decrease in the three measures, as economic recession hits the workforce.

FTEs were down 1.7 per cent from the March 2008 quarter to 1.36 million, while the number of filled jobs decreased 1.1 per cent for the same period to 1.72 million.

- NZPA