Australia in the September 2022 quarter saw the highest wage growth since 2012, according to data released Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Its wage price index rose 1.0% in the September quarter and was up 3.1% annually.

“This is the highest quarterly growth in hourly wages recorded since March quarter 2012,” said Michelle Marquardt, program manager of prices at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. “In seasonally adjusted terms, this growth was primarily driven by increases in wages for the private sector, which grew at twice the rate of wages in the public sector (1.2% compared to 0.6%).”

Like many countries, Australia is experiencing record levels of inflation. In October, the ABS reported that Australia’s inflation rate had risen to 7.3% annually in the September quarter so the record increase in wages translates to quite a sharp decrease in real terms.

Marquardt continued, “Labour market pressures in the private sector combined with the largest Fair Work Commission award increase in more than a decade saw rises in both the size of average wage changes and the proportion of private sector jobs recording a wage change. The average size of hourly wage increase for those jobs where the wage rate moved was 4.3%, up from 2.9% in the September quarter 2021. Nearly half (46.4%) of private sector jobs recorded a change in their hourly wage rate this quarter compared to around one third (33.9%) in the same quarter last year.”

Retail trade posted the highest quarterly and annual growth at 2.4% and 4.2%, respectively.

The education and training industry recorded the lowest quarterly (0.8%) and annual (2.2%) growth across all industries.