Liam Dann: Wages up 1.6 per cent, house prices up 13.5 per cent

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If you missed out on a payrise in the past year - or it was so small you hardly noticed - then don't feel too bad. You weren't alone.

New data out today shows wages grew just 1.6 per cent in the year to June 30.

In the last three months wages grew just 0.4 per cent on average. Those figures were lower than market expectations of 0.5 per cent for the quarter and 1.8 per cent for the year.

By comparison with annual price inflation - now down to just 0.4 per cent - the wage rise wasn't too bad.

But that figure doesn't include house prices and for those trying to get into the property market wage data offers no comfort at all.

House price inflation ran at a national average of 13.5 per cent in the year to June 30, the same period covered by the wage data.

According to Quotable Value figures out yesterday, this had risen to 14.1 per cent in the 12 months to July 31.

The softer annual rate of wage inflation was likely to weigh on the Reserve Bank's projected inflation outlook and reinforce the need for at least two further OCR cuts, wote ASB economists.

The Reserve Bank is now widely expected to cut the official cash rate from 2.25 per cent to 2.0 per cent next week.

ASB is picking another cut will be made in November.

Official unemployment figures, also due today, have been delayed by two weeks because of changes to the Household Labour Force Survey.

However employment growth figures were released showing full time equivalent job growth of just 0.3 per cent in the June quarter, . Annual employment growth has fell to just 3.2 per cent.

That wouldn't necessarily translate into a significant rise in unemployment, wrote Sydney based Capital Economics in its report.

Indications were that unemployment was unlikely to have shifted much, the economists wrote.

That meant there was little likelihood of any upward pressure on wages in the near future.