Real wages slide
Wage price growth came in at a seasonally adjusted 0.8 per cent, as expected.
To a couple of decimal places, the quarterly growth picked up a little from 0.77 per cent to 0.82 per cent.
Over the year wage price growth has been above 3 per cent for 14 quarters consecutively, but at 3.4 per cent was below headline inflation of 3.8 per cent over calendar year 2025.
It was the first time in two years that real wages growth has turned negative.
Private sector wages growth picked up a little from 0.77 per cent to 0.83 per cent in the December quarter.
However, over the year wages growth remained higher in the public sector (3.98 per cent) than the private sector (3.39 per cent).
Not surprisingly around ¾ of the wages growth in the December came from healthcare and social assistance - the king of all growth sectors in Australia.
The other sectors to see wages growth of above 4 per cent in 2025 were public administration and electricity, gas, and waste services.
The ABS commented:
‘Strong growth in public sector wages for 2025 was due to new state public sector agreements that delivered multiple pay rises over the course of the year."
At the state and territory level, the strongest wages growth was seen in Western Australia (4.1 per cent), but has fallen away sharply in the Northern Territory (2.2 per cent).
The strongest growth in the December quarter was in New South Wales at 1 per cent.
Overall, the result was in line with expectations, with some tentative signs of wages growth picking up in the private sector.
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In related news online jobs ads jumped 3.6 per cent in January, although they were slightly lower (-0.9 per cent) than a year earlier.
The main handbrake has been Victoria where ads are down -4.7 per cent over the past year, but lately things seem to be picking up a bit.
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