But the pick-up has been fairly modest and is only evident in the private sector (Graph 11). Over the past year, the private-sector Wage Price Index increased by 2.4 per cent, up from 1.9 per cent in the previous year. The past two quarters have, however, seen lower wage increases than in the previous two quarters.
In contrast to trends in the private sector, wages growth in the public sector has been steady at around 2½ per cent, largely reflecting the wage caps across much of the public sector.