First quarterly decline in hours worked since September quarter 2021

Hours worked declined by 0.7 per cent to 5,879 million hours in the September quarter 2023, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics, said: “The decline in hours worked in the September quarter was the first since September quarter 2021, when public health and social measures were introduced in response to the COVID-19 Delta variant.”

“However, the 0.7 per cent fall follows a period of strong growth in hours worked, with annual growth still high at 4.2 per cent. That is still faster than we have seen in past Labour Account data that goes back to the September quarter 1994.”

While the number of filled jobs continued to rise, up 0.8 per cent for the quarter, the rate of growth had also slowed from earlier in the year.

“The slowing in job growth and hours coincides with recent Labour Force data showing that most employment growth since mid-2023 has been part-time employment,” Mr Jarvis said.

These changes also coincided with a fall in the number of multiple job-holders, down by 0.8 per cent in the September quarter. The multiple job-holding rate decreased to 6.6 per cent, down from its historical high of 6.7 per cent in the previous two quarters. The rate increased for women, to a new high of 7.9 per cent, and fell for men, down to 5.6 per cent.

“Working multiple jobs continues to be more common for women, and this has increased in recent quarters. It's currently around one in every 13 employed women, compared to one in 18 employed men,” Mr Jarvis said.

The number of filled jobs has continued to increase since a decline in the September quarter 2021, although growth has started to slow down over the last two quarters, following a period of particularly strong growth before that.

Filled jobs and main jobs both increased by 0.8 per cent for the September quarter 2023, down from 1.1 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively for the March quarter 2023.

“Growth in secondary jobs has also eased recently, increasing by 1.0 per cent in the current quarter compared to six months earlier, when they increased by 4.1 per cent in the March quarter 2023,” Mr Jarvis said.

The slowing hours, jobs growth and multiple job-holding coincided with a further fall in job vacancies, the fourth consecutive decline since the record high of 495,600 in the September quarter 2022.

“However, even with the 15.6 per cent fall over the year, job vacancies remained 85 per cent higher than before the pandemic. That’s around 418,000 vacancies compared with 226,000 back in March quarter 2020 – still close to 200,000 more – or around 2.6 per cent of total jobs,” Mr Jarvis said.

Filled jobs increased in 10 out of 19 industries, with the largest increases in Health care and social assistance (49,700) and Accommodation and food services (40,700). These increases were partially offset by decreases in Construction (22,700), Retail trade (13,600) and Administrative and support services (12,700).

Hours actually worked declined in 10 of the 19 industries with the largest fall in level terms in the Construction industry (3.4 per cent) followed by Professional, scientific and technical services (2.4 per cent).

Total labour income increased by 2.4 per cent for the current quarter with the Health care and social assistance industry contributing approximately 19 per cent to this overall increase. While it is the largest employing industry, this share was much greater than its total share of filled jobs and hours worked in the labour market during the quarter (15.0 per cent and 13.4 per cent).

Health care and social assistance also made the largest contribution to the 1.3 per cent increase in the September quarter 2023 Wage Price Index. Many jobs in this industry have wage increases linked to the Fair Work Commission’s Annual Wage Review 2022-23 and/or the Aged Care Work value case.