Payroll jobs rise slightly into June
Payroll jobs rose 0.1 per cent in the month to 15 June 2024, after a 0.4 per cent rise in the month to 18 May 2024, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics, said: “The smaller monthly growth in payroll jobs was broadly in line with what we saw last year, after Easter and the autumn school holidays.
“We continue to see slower annual growth in payroll jobs through 2023-24, falling from above 3 per cent early in the financial year down to around half that, 1.6 per cent, by mid-June.
“The slowing growth in payroll jobs is similar to what we’ve seen in other labour market indicators, after particularly strong growth during 2022-23.”
Indexed to the week ending 14 March 2020.
Mid-Mar represents the week ending 14 March 2020, 13 March 2021, 12 March 2022, 11 March 2023 and 9 March 2024.
Mid-Jun represents the week ending 20 June 2020, 19 June 2021, 18 June 2022, 17 June 2023 and 15 June 2024.
Mid-Sep represents the week ending 19 September 2020, 18 September 2021, 17 September 2022 and 16 September 2023.
Mid-Dec represents the week ending 12 December 2020, 11 December 2021, 10 December 2022 and 9 December 2023.
Health care and social assistance drives payroll jobs over the month
Payroll jobs increased in 6 of 19 industries over the past month.
“The small monthly rise to mid-June 2024 was mainly underpinned by growth in jobs in Health care and social assistance, Education and training, and Public administration and safety.
“While these three industries account for around a third, or 32 per cent, of the total number of payroll jobs in Australia, they made up most of the payroll jobs increase - that’s 95 per cent - over the month, given the falls in payroll jobs we saw in many of the other industries,” Mr Jarvis said.
Around 50 per cent of the total rise in payroll jobs was in Health care and social assistance (+1.1 per cent). Education and training (+1.4 per cent) and Public administration and safety (+0.6 per cent) contributed a further 45 per cent to the total rise.
These rises were offset by falls in 12 of 19 industries, with the largest falls in Accommodation and food services (-1.3 per cent), Agriculture, forestry and fishing (-1.1 per cent), and Construction (-0.9 per cent).
Payroll jobs monthly change varies across states and territories
Payroll jobs rose in four of the eight states and territories through to mid-June 2024. The largest index rises were in the Northern Territory (+0.9 per cent) and the Australian Capital Territory (+0.5 per cent).
Queensland (+0.4 per cent) and Western Australia (+0.1 per cent) accounted for over three quarters (81 per cent) of the total national rise in payroll jobs over the month, with other states remaining steady.
Media notes
- Weekly Payroll Jobs will transition to a quarterly release frequency following this release, as the ABS explores enhancements to the suite of labour statistics it produces using Single Touch Payroll data. See Upcoming changes in this release for more information.
- Payroll jobs are not seasonally adjusted, which generally requires at least three years of reasonably stable data. The longstanding seasonally adjusted Labour Force statistics series can aid in the interpretation of labour statistics across periods of greater seasonality, including through the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Payroll jobs are predominantly employee jobs paid through payrolls. Some industries, such as Agriculture, forestry and fishing and Construction have high proportions of owner managers who are not included in payroll reporting. See the Scope and coverage section in the Methodology of this release for more information.
- In each release, payroll job estimates are revised as more complete data are received. The magnitude of revisions can vary at some points of the year, such as the start and end of the financial and calendar year in line with changes in the reporting activity of businesses.
- The ABS acknowledges the continued support of the ATO in enabling the ABS to produce weekly insights into the Australian labour market from Single Touch Payroll data.
- When reporting ABS data you must attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.
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