LATEST EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS AND ECONOMY TRENDS
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released their latest June quartlery economy and employment statistics, as well as annual changes.
Economy
- While the Reserve Bank Cash Rate has remained unchanged in September 2018 (1.5%) with questions posed over the economy’s stability, drop in the housing market, and decreases in dwelling and new building approvals.
- Growth is forecast at somewhere in the region of 3%, but household debt levels remain high, and the drought conditions are concerning.
- Some banks have increased Interest Rates on the back of increased costs of lending globally.
As well as the strong indicators listed above, the Unemployment Rate (measured monthly) has kept steady at a very healthy 5.4%, noting that “full employment” is considered by economists at anywhere from 4 – 5.5%.
On the back of this, it is no surprise that job vacancies are up – 4.6% increase for the quarter, and a whopping 21.4% annually!
Average weekly earnings have increased by 2.6% increase, to $1582.20.
Ageing workforce
- You probably know that people are participating in the workforce longer, with the average age in the workforce going up. There are a whole raft of factors in play that affect this. Watch out for my article on it in coming weeks;
- A key ageing workforce statistic - 13% of people over 65 yrs old are still working (in some way or other).
National Minimum Wage reminder
As from the first full pay period in July 2018, we would like to remind all employers who employ Award-based employees, that the National Minimum Wage (NMW) increased by 3.5%. For more info, see our previous news article ‘Fair Work Commission National Wage Review Summary’.
A little bit of trivIa!
At approximately, 11pm on Tuesday 7th August 2018, Australia’s population reached 25 million people!! 67% of us live in capital cities and 33% in rural or other urban areas.