Payroll jobs growth continues to be slower in 2022

Payroll jobs fell 0.8 per cent in the month to 16 April 2022, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Bjorn Jarvis, head of Labour Statistics at the ABS, said “Payroll jobs fell leading into the Easter holidays. This is something that we usually see around public and school holidays.” 

The latest week of payroll data overlapped with both the start of school holidays and the Easter long weekend, which in 2022 was two weeks later than 2021.

The change in the timing of Easter between years can make it more difficult to compare data across years, given the ABS cannot yet produce seasonally adjusted statistics from this relatively new data.

“When interpreting the underlying change in the labour market over time, it is most useful to compare changes in payroll jobs across periods with similar seasonality,” Mr Jarvis said.

“Focussing on the period between the end of January, at the end of the summer school holidays, and the end of March, before Easter, we can see that payroll jobs increased by 1.9 per cent in 2022. This was below the 2.5 per cent increase over that period in 2021.

“However, while payroll jobs growth has continued to be slower in 2022 than 2021, the difference has also reduced over time, given the greater labour market impacts related to the Omicron variant and floods earlier in the year. Back at the end of February the growth rate in payroll jobs in 2022 was just over a third of what it had been in 2021.”

Payroll jobs can show larger short-term changes than Labour Force statistics on employment, given that employees may be away from paid work for a short period without losing their job, particularly during holiday periods. Information on employed people working reduced or no hours in April will be available in next week’s Labour Force release.

Payroll jobs decreased in all states and territories in the month to 16 April 2022. The largest fall in payroll jobs was in New South Wales, down 1.0 per cent in the month to 16 April 2022, which was similar to the change seen in the month to 17 April 2021 (down 1.1 per cent).

Western Australia had the smallest fall in payroll jobs, down 0.4 per cent in the month to 16 April 2022, which was less than the fall seen a year earlier (down 0.7 per cent).

As with previous Easter periods, payroll jobs fell in the majority of industries (12 of 19 in 2022). The largest fall was in the Accommodation and food services industry (down 5.4 per cent), with payroll job losses in the industry accounting for one third (33.1 per cent) of total job losses in the month to 16 April 2022.

“Changes in payroll jobs in the Accommodation and food services industry continue to be greater than for most other industries – something that we have seen throughout the pandemic,” Mr Jarvis said.

“Payroll jobs growth in the industry was weaker in 2022 than in 2021, at both the end of March and at Easter. In addition to impacts on payroll jobs associated with the Omicron variant and floods, the industry has also seen relatively high numbers of job vacancies, which are more than double what they were before the pandemic.”

The ABS acknowledges the continued support of the Australian Taxation Office in enabling the ABS to produce weekly insights into the Australian labour market from Single Touch Payroll data.