The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released new statistics on jobs and wages based on Single Touch Payroll data from the Australian Taxation Office. The estimates in Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia provide additional information on the economic impact of COVID-19 and complement monthly Labour Force statistics.
The new data showed that between 14 March and 4 April (the three weeks after Australia recorded its 100th confirmed COVID-19 case) jobs decreased by 6.0%.
Head of Labour Statistics at the ABS, Bjorn Jarvis, said: “The largest impact of net job losses, in percentage terms, was for people aged under 20, for whom jobs decreased by 9.9%.
“Tasmania and Victoria had the largest decreases in jobs, down by 7.3% and 6.8%.
“The Accommodation and food services industry saw the largest reduction in jobs (decreasing by 25.6%), followed by the Arts and recreation services industry (decreasing by 18.7%).”
Total wages paid by businesses decreased by 6.7% over the period.
“Looking at the week-to-week changes, the decrease in jobs in the week ending 4 April 2020 was 5.5%, significantly larger than the 0.5% decrease in the week ending 28 March 2020,” Mr Jarvis said.
Further information is available in Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia (cat. no. 6160.0.55.001).
The ABS would like to acknowledge the critical support from the Australian Taxation Office in enabling the ABS to produce these statistics, which provide fresh weekly insights into the Australian labour market.