Sluggish wage growth showing again in the data.

0.5% q/q for a miss

  • expected 0.6% q/q, prior 0.6%

2.3% y/y

  • expected 2.3% y/y, prior 2.3%

Private sector wages +2.3% y/y (previous was +2.1%) for the best since Q4 of 2014.

Public sector +2.5% y/y

The RBA is looking for faster wage growth than this, they'd like to see faster wage growth translate into higher spending and thus a boost for economic growth. This sluggish performance for wages is a factor in the RBA consistently making overly optimistic forecasts (I won't mention other factors such as their seeming unwillingness to accept they have been wrong and do something to correct that. Nope, won't mention that).

AUD down a few tics on the data release.

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Background to this here