Wages up, but private sector lags

Average pay packets rose 0.6 per cent in the last quarter, says Statistics NZ. Photo / NZ Herald

New Zealand wage inflation accelerated in the third quarter, though is still soft enough to keep the central bank wary of hiking interest rates with private sector wages climbing at a softer-than-expected pace.

The labour cost index rose 0.6 per cent in the three months ended September 30, in line with a Reuters survey of economists, as wages and salaries, according to Statistics New Zealand.

Public sector wage costs grew 0.6 per cent in the quarter while private sector labour costs rose 0.5 per cent. Still, labour costs in the private sector have outpaced their public counterparts on an annual basis, up 2 per cent compared to 1.8 per cent.

"The average size of annual increases has remained fairly steady for the past 18 months," Cathryn Ashley-Jones, acting government statistician said in a statement. Since the recession, "the proportion of surveyed pay rates showing annual rises has grown - from 43 per cent in the year to the March 2010 quarter to 56 per cent in the year to the September 2011 quarter."

Total private sector average hourly wages grew 1.2 per cent to $24.58 an hour, short of the 2.1 per cent forecast by Reuters, outpacing the 0.9 per cent average wage growth in the public sector, according to the Quarterly Employment Survey also released today.

Last week, Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard played down inflationary fears, keeping the official cash rate on hold at 2.5 per cent, as the latest global financial downturn damps appetite to tighten local monetary policy.

Today's release comes ahead of Thursday's household labour force survey, which is expected to show the unemployment rate fell to 6.4 per cent from 6.5 per cent in the June quarter.

Economists are wary of the data beating expectations with the Rugby World Cup kicking off in the September quarter, which may bolster the casual and part-time workforce.

The actual number of full time equivalent employees (FTEs) fell 0.6 per cent to 1.32 million people as expected, and is up 0.4 per cent on an annual basis. Total filled jobs was flat at 1.69 million, while total paid hours fell 1.2 per cent in the quarter to 50.4 million. On a seasonally adjusted basis, FTEs rose 0.1 per cent, while filled jobs grew 0.7 per cent.

Rental, hiring and real estate services reported the biggest jump in FTEs, up 7.3 per cent to 20,600, followed by 2.9 per cent gains in electricity, gas, water and waste services to 10,500 and retail trade to 133,100.

Manufacturing FTEs dropped 3.5 per cent to 168,600 in the quarter in its second quarterly contraction.