Wages and salaries up 1.6pc - lowest increase in 16 years

Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

A measure of average total hourly earnings rose just 1.3 per cent in the year to September, the lowest annual increase in 16 years.

The quarterly employment survey (QES), published today by Statistics New Zealand (SNZ), also showed total paid hours and full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) increased 2.4 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively, during the year.

Filled jobs were up 0.7 per cent over the year but down 1 per cent from the previous quarter.

In seasonally adjusted terms, total gross earnings increased 0.8 per cent for the September quarter, while total paid hours increased 0.2 per cent.

Also published today, the labour cost index (LCI), showed salary and wage rates, including overtime, grew 1.6 per cent in the year to the September. That is the same as the movement in the year to the June quarter.

Annual labour cost index wage growth declined from a peak of 4 per cent in the year to September 2008 to 1.5 per cent in the year to the March 2010 quarter, SNZ said.

Salary and wage rates for the private sector rose 1.6 per cent in the year to September, while the 1.3 per cent increase for the public sector was the lowest annual movement since a 1.2 per cent rise in 1999.

In the September quarter, salary and wage rates measured by the LCI rose 0.5 per cent, with private sector salary and wage rates up 0.5 per cent and public sector rates up 0.3 per cent.

The QES average earnings statistics reflect not only changes in wages and salaries, but also compositional and other changes in the paid workforce. In contrast, the LCI measures changes in salary and wage rates for a fixed quantity and quality of labour input.

- NZPA