ABS: Payroll Jobs Making A Slow Recovery
The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveal that total payroll jobs rose a modest 1% between mid-May and mid-June. However, the recovery in payroll jobs between mid-April and mid-June represents just 30% of the jobs initially lost.
“This continued the gradual recovery in payroll jobs since mid-April (when total job losses were 8.8%),” said Bjorn Jarvis, Head of Labour Statistics at the ABS. “However, payroll jobs are still 6.4% below mid-March, when Australia recorded its 100th confirmed case of COVID-19.”
From mid-March to mid-June total wages paid have decreased by 6.3%.
Over this same period, payroll jobs in the ‘accommodation and food services’ and ‘arts and recreation services’ sectors have been hit the hardest, falling by 28.6% and 23.9%, respectively. Both ‘retail trade’ and ‘manufacturing’ payroll jobs contracted by 5%.
The only two sectors to record growth in payroll jobs were ‘electricity, gas, water and waste services’ (1.2%), and ‘financial and insurance services’ (0.8%).