Australian wages grow at fastest pace since 2009
One significant sector of workers is receiving the highest pay bumps
3 min
Wages grew at their fastest pace since 2009 at an annualised 4.2 percent in the December quarter, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This is the first time that wages have grown faster than inflation since 2021. Newly implemented enterprise agreements for essential workers drove public sector wages growth to its highest quarterly rate in 15 years at 1.3 percent. Private sector wages growth came in at 0.9 percent, mainly due to annual salary reviews at companies.
Michelle Marquardt, ABS head of prices statistics, said: “In the December quarter 2023, 38 percent of public sector jobs saw a wage rise, considerably higher than the 29 percent from the same quarter in the previous year. The average hourly wage change for these jobs has lifted to 4.3 percent, higher than 2.8 percent at the same time last year and the highest recorded since September 2008.”
CBA economist Belinda Allen commented that rising unemployment was another factor contributing to higher wages growth in the public sector versus the private sector.
“This was the first time since Q1 10 that the public sector was stronger than the private sector in through-the-year growth,” Ms Allen said. “Jobs set by individual agreements are generally more tied to demand for labour. The loosening of the labour market seen in recent months is dampening wages growth pressure in individual agreements.”
The unemployment rate rose to its highest level in two years at 4.1 percent in January. It is up 0.5 percent in five months, which CBA says is a significant and somewhat concerning pace of change.
The ABS data showed that at an industry-wide level, quarterly wages growth in December was highest in education at 1.7 percent and lowest in accommodation and food at 0.3 percent. Annual wages growth was highest in health care and social assistance at 5.5 percent, which represents the greatest growth since the ABS introduced the Wage Price Index (WPI) data series in 1998. The lowest annual wages growth was in the finance and insurance services industry at 3.2 percent.
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers said workers were earning more under Labor, and from 1 July the amended Stage 3 tax cuts would allow them to keep more of that income.
“This is the first time since 2018 we’ve seen three consecutive quarters of real wages growth,” Dr Chalmers said. “Since the election, nominal wages have been growing at an annualised average of 4 percent, compared to 2.2 percent for our predecessors. This is a substantial turnaround in just 18 months.”
Ms Allen said CBA expects wages growth to moderate from here to 3.6 percent by year’s end.
“Near-term pressure will still occur from enterprise agreements, but a slowing economy, rising labour market spare capacity, and disinflation will gradually weigh on nominal wage increases.”
The ABS data was released on the same day as a report from economic research firm e61 Institute that found restrictions on job mobility, such as the rising use of non-compete clauses in individual contracts, have contributed to a 15-year slowdown in wages growth and productivity. According to e61, switching jobs results in an average 9 percent higher pay rise for workers, but today more than one-fifth of the workforce is restricted by non-compete and no-poach of co-workers agreements.
Such clauses are more common in knowledge industries and “many firms are deploying restraint clauses indiscriminately, potentially adversely affecting low wage workers who lack bargaining power,” said e61. The Federal Government established a Competition Taskforce Advisory Panel in August to investigate ways to increase productivity and wages growth, with non-compete clauses that stop workers from shifting to better-paying jobs one of the first issues to be considered.
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The lunar flyby would be the deepest humans have traveled in space in decades.
4 min
It’s go time for the highest-stakes mission at NASA in more than 50 years.
On April 1, the agency is set to launch four astronauts around the moon, the deepest human spaceflight since the final Apollo lunar landing in 1972.
The launch window for Artemis II , as the mission is called, opens at 6:24 p.m. ET.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration teams have been preparing the vehicles to depart from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on the planned roughly 10-day trip. Crew members have trained for years for this moment.
Reid Wiseman, the NASA astronaut serving as mission commander, said he doesn’t fear taking the voyage. A widower, he does worry at times about what he is putting his daughters through.
“I could have a very comfortable life for them,” Wiseman said in an interview last September.
“But I’m also a human, and I see the spirit in their eyes that is burning in my soul too. And so we’ve just got to never stop going.”
Wiseman’s crewmates on Artemis II are NASA’s Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
What are the goals for Artemis II?
The biggest one: Safely fly the crew on vehicles that have never carried astronauts before.
The towering Space Launch System rocket has the job of lofting a vehicle called Orion into space and on its way to the moon.
Orion is designed to carry the crew around the moon and back. Myriad systems on the ship—life support, communications, navigation—will be tested with the astronauts on board.
SLS and Orion don’t have much flight experience. The vehicles last flew in 2022, when the agency completed its uncrewed Artemis I mission .
How is the mission expected to unfold?
Artemis II will begin when SLS takes off from a launchpad in Florida with Orion stacked on top of it.
The so-called upper stage of SLS will later separate from the main part of the rocket with Orion attached, and use its engine to set up the latter vehicle for a push to the moon.
After Orion separates from the upper stage, it will conduct what is called a translunar injection—the engine firing that commits Orion to soaring out to the moon. It will fly to the moon over the course of a few days and travel around its far side.
Orion will face a tough return home after speeding through space. As it hits Earth’s atmosphere, Orion will be flying at 25,000 miles an hour and face temperatures of 5,000 degrees as it slows down. The capsule is designed to land under parachutes in the Pacific Ocean, not far from San Diego.
Is it possible Artemis II will be delayed?
Yes.
For safety reasons, the agency won’t launch if certain tough weather conditions roll through the Cape Canaveral, Fla., area. Delays caused by technical problems are possible, too. NASA has other dates identified for the mission if it doesn’t begin April 1.
Who are the astronauts flying on Artemis II?
The crew will be led by Wiseman, a retired Navy pilot who completed military deployments before joining NASA’s astronaut corps. He traveled to the International Space Station in 2014.
Two other astronauts will represent NASA during the mission: Glover, an experienced Navy pilot, and Koch, who began her career as an electrical engineer for the agency and once spent a year at a research station in the South Pole. Both have traveled to the space station before.
Hansen is a military pilot who joined Canada’s astronaut corps in 2009. He will be making his first trip to space.
Koch’s participation in Artemis II will mark the first time a woman has flown beyond orbits near Earth. Glover and Hansen will be the first African-American and non-American astronauts, respectively, to do the same.
What will the astronauts do during the flight?
The astronauts will evaluate how Orion flies, practice emergency procedures and capture images of the far side of the moon for scientific and exploration purposes (they may become the first humans to see parts of the far side of the lunar surface). Health-tracking projects of the astronauts are designed to inform future missions.
Those efforts will play out in Orion’s crew module, which has about two minivans worth of living area.
On board, the astronauts will spend about 30 minutes a day exercising, using a device that allows them to do dead lifts, rowing and more. Sleep will come in eight-hour stretches in hammocks.
There is a custom-made warmer for meals, with beef brisket and veggie quiche on the menu.
Each astronaut is permitted two flavored beverages a day, including coffee. The crew will hold one hourlong shared meal each day.
The Universal Waste Management System—that’s the toilet—uses air flow to pull fluid and solid waste away into containers.
What happens after Artemis II?
Assuming it goes well, NASA will march on to Artemis III, scheduled for next year. During that operation, NASA plans to launch Orion with crew members on board and have the ship practice docking with lunar-lander vehicles that Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have been developing. The rendezvous operations will occur relatively close to Earth.
NASA hopes that its contractors and the agency itself are ready to attempt one or more lunar landing missions in 2028. Many current and former spaceflight officials are skeptical that timeline is feasible.
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