This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
EMPLOYMENT in Australia witnessed massive growth in 2022 with close to an extra half a million Australians finding a job by year’s end.
Deloitte Access Economics Employment Forecasts shows that employment in Australia is in a far better position than it was in December 2021.
450,000 more Australians were in employment by December 2022 than the year prior.
The industries that received the largest employment growth were health care, construction and accommodation & food services.
While employment grew by 4.0% in 2022, Deloitte predicts it to grow a lot slower in 2023 by just 1.3%.
We’ve also seen a 7.5% drop in job vacancies as worker demand moves along a downward trend.
Deloitte Access Economics partner and lead author David Rumbens says that 2022 was a year where wages suffered.
“Wages growth increased to 3.1% in the year to September 2022, but that was small fry in relation to the inflation surge of 7.3% over the same period. Workers therefore reluctantly received a real wage decline of 4.2% near the end of 2022, the largest decline since the Australian Bureau of Statistics wage data commenced,” he said.
A pattern that’s been noticeable is the greater voice that employees have in determining their work conditions.
Work flexibility has increased following the pandemic which witnessed the world of hybrid-work step up. According to Rumbens, there could be future disputes between worker and boss.
“..2023 may also be the year where employers and employees battle for workplace influence. There is a growing list of US companies that are ordering their employees to return to the office, some even full-time. So far, this trend is yet to occur in Australia, at least in a meaningful way,” he added.
2023 is expected to have lesser growth in white collar jobs, after a huge two years of an extra 778,800 white collar workers being employed. Deloitte’s figures predict an extra 170,800 white collar workers will be added this year.
“Following above average growth in 2021 and 2022 the labour market slowdown will be more pronounced for blue collar employment which is forecast to grow by just 7500 workers in 2023,” said Rumbens.
