Payroll jobs 4.5 per cent lower than mid-March
Payroll jobs were 0.7 per cent lower for the month ending 5 September, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.
Bjorn Jarvis, head of Labour Statistics at the ABS, said: “Over the month to 5 September, payroll jobs fell by 2.1 per cent in Victoria and by 0.2 per cent for the rest of Australia.”
“Payroll jobs remain around 4.5 per cent lower than mid-March – 8.3 per cent lower in Victoria and 3.1 per cent lower in the rest of Australia.”
Mr Jarvis said that “around 48 per cent of jobs lost across Australia by mid-April had been regained by 5 September, down from 59 per cent in mid-July.”
Since mid-April, the recovery in payroll job losses was highest in Western Australia (89 per cent), the Northern Territory (74 per cent) and South Australia (69 per cent).
Nationally, payroll jobs worked by people aged under 20 showed the greatest increase since mid-April (26 per cent), however in Victoria the initial recovery for this group had largely been reversed (down to 5 per cent in early September).
Recovery of payroll jobs in the Accommodation and food services and Arts and recreation services industries was greatest in Western Australia (32 per cent for both) and the Northern Territory (20 per cent and 39 per cent). In Victoria, payroll jobs in these industries in early September were similar to the levels in mid-April (1 percent lower and 3 per cent higher) than they were in mid-April.
Further information is available in Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia.
The ABS would like to acknowledge the continued support from the Australian Taxation Office in enabling the ABS to produce the statistics, providing weekly insights into the Australian labour market.
Media notes
- This release includes information on payroll jobs paid through Single Touch Payroll enabled software to the Australian Taxation Office.
- In each release, as more complete data are received, payroll jobs and wages estimates (including percentage change movement and indexes) are revised.
- While the ABS accounts for employees being paid with different frequencies, there are points in the year when additional reporting activity is more likely to occur, which may flow through to published estimates.
- Estimates of Payroll Jobs by Statistical Areas 3 and 4 through to the week ending 5 September will be added to this release on Wednesday 23 September 2020.
- An interactive map examining change in payroll jobs through 2020 will be added to this release on Thursday 24 September 2020.
- The additional ABS products being published to understand the economic impact of the coronavirus can be found on the ABS COVID-19 page.
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