Payroll jobs rose 2.6% in the month to 11 February 2023 and were 3.1% higher than the same period a year earlier, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics, says: “The rise in payroll jobs to mid-February 2023 is a seasonal pattern seen before, as summer school holidays end and businesses return from their year-end holidays through January.
“This growth in payroll jobs in 2023 was also broadly consistent with the same period in 2020, before the start of the pandemic. It was below what we saw in early 2021 and 2022, but at that point payroll jobs were still recovering from impacts from the first and second years of the pandemic.”
Mr Jarvis says now that the ABS had four years of Single Touch Payroll data, it is interesting to note the relatively consistent growth seen by mid-February.
“Although each year has brought different experiences and impacts from the pandemic, the year-on-year growth in payroll jobs has generally been similar, at slightly above 3% each year.”