13 Oct Flat ABS Payroll Jobs Figures Suggest Slowing Economic Activity
Payroll jobs remained stagnant (0.0 per cent) in the month to 16 September 2023, following a 0.2% increase in August, according to new figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Whilst payroll jobs actually rose in five of the eight states and territories over the month – with the largest rises in the Australian Capital Territory (0.4%) and Western Australia (0.3%) – falls were recorded across 12 of the 19 industries monitored by the ABS, led by Retail trade (-0.8%) and Manufacturing (-0.4%).
Kate Lamb, Head of Labour Statistics at the ABS, noted that with annualised payroll jobs growth over the year to September 2023 of 2.4%, down from 2.7% in August, the latest numbers suggested that labour market growth was beginning to slow.
Further, the strongest increases in the month to September 2023 were recorded in the public administration and safety industries, which related to short-term increases in payroll jobs associated with the referendum in October, and in education and training, which reflected a seasonal peak ahead of holidays in late September. Without these increases, payroll jobs actually fell overall by 0.3% over the month across the other 17 industries.
Over the year to September 2023, the growth in payroll jobs was strongest in the Northern Territory (4.5%) and Western Australia (3.4%), with the lowest increases recorded in Tasmania (2.1%) and New South Wales (2.0%) in rounding out the 2.4% overall figure.
Payroll jobs numbers are not seasonally adjusted, offering instead monthly labour market “insights” enabled by sharing from the Australian Taxation Office’s Single Touch Payroll data, and exclude data from some industries such as agriculture, forestry and fishing, and construction, which have high proportions of owner managers who are not included in payroll reporting.
Further information on the ABS’ latest release on payroll jobs data can be accessed here. Information relating to scope, coverage and methodology used in preparing this information can be accessed here.