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WAGE PRICE INDEX

DECEMBER KEY FIGURES, Western Australia
		Dec Qtr 2009	Sep 09 Qtr to Dec 09 qtr	Dec 08 qtr to Dec 09 qtr
Original			% chg	%chg
Western Australia		102.9	0.8	3.0
Sector:
	Private	102.4	0.6	2.5
	Public	104.7	1.7	4.7
Source: Labour Price Index, Australia (cat. no. 6345.0).

• In the December quarter 2009, the Wage Price Index (WPI) for Western Australia increased by 0.8% in original terms, similar to the national increase (0.7%). Of the states and territories, the Northern Territory (1.2%) had the highest quarterly increase while New South Wales had the lowest (0.4%).
• The quarterly increases for the public and private sectors were 1.7% and 0.6% respectively. In July 2009, the Australian Fair Pay Commission decision was to make no change to minimum wage rates. Therefore, the wage increases that might have been expected to affect the December quarter 2009 Wage Price Index did not occur.
• In the 12 months to December 2009, the public sector index rose by 4.7%, compared with 6.0% in the previous 12 months. Private sector wages growth slowed more quickly; in the year to December 2009, the index rose by 2.5% compared with 5.5% in the previous year.
• The difference between the public and private sector increase can be attributed, in part, to the higher proportion of public sector jobs covered by Certified Agreements. These tend to cover longer time frames than the informal agreements widely used in the private sector.

• Through the year to December 2009, the WPI for all sectors increased 3.0% for Western Australia and 2.9% nationally.
• During the last five years, the annual increase has remained higher in Western Australia than nationally although the gap started to narrow in the six months to December 2009.

ANZSIC Division	Dec qtr 09	Sep qtr 09	Sep qtr 09 to Dec qtr 09	Dec 08 to Dec 09
			% Change	% Change
Selected Industries
Mining	102.1	101.4	0.7	2.4
Manufacturing	102.1	101.7	0.4	2.0
Construction	102.4	102.0	0.4	3.3
Retail trade	103.2	102.6	0.6	3.7
Accommodation and food services	101.9	101.3	0.6	1.7
Transport, postal and warehousing	103.5	102.2	1.3	3.6
Professional, scientific and technical Services	103.0	102.8	0.2	2.5
Administrative and support services	102.8	102.4	0.4	3.1
Public administration and safety	104.0	102.9	1.1	3.7
Education and training	104.8	101.8	2.9	4.8
Health care and social assistance	104.4	103.8	0.6	4.7
Source: Labour Price Index (cat. no. 6345.0).

• The industry classification used in the Wage Price Index was updated for the September quarter 2009 to better reflect the types of industries in today's economy. To find out more about these changes see:

  6345.0.55.001 - Information Paper: Update on ANZSIC 2006 Implementation for Labour Price Index, 2009

• The industries with a significant proportion of public sector employees showed the greatest annual WPI growth. These included Education and training (4.8%), Health care and social assistance (4.7%) and Public administration and safety (3.7%). Retail trade also showed strong wages growth (3.7%).
• Accommodation and food services (1.7%) and Manufacturing (2.0%) had the lowest annual WPI increases.