Australian Weekly Earnings Up, Company Profits Down

Added by Nigel Shelbourne on June 30, 2011

Australian average weekly earnings are up 6.4%, year over year or as compared to the same quarter last year, as reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.

The average weekly earnings for all employed persons are 977.06. Men earned 6.6% more with an average weekly income of 1,183.44 while women’s weekly earnings are up 5.3% to an average of 765.25 per week. The Australian Bureau of Statistics also reports that gross household income is up 1.6%, along with gross disposable income seeing an increase of 1.4% compared to the previous quarter.

Broken down by state, the Northern Territory leads the increases in the average weekly earnings of all employees with an increase of 2.4% over the previous quarter. The weekly earnings of all employees in Victoria increased by 2%, followed by Tasmania at 1.2%. Queensland leads the declining states with a decline of 0.8% in weekly earnings of all employees, followed by South Australia with a reduction of 0.7% and the Australian Capital Territory, down 0.4%.

The weekly earnings statistics bear a striking contrast to company profits before income tax. Overall company profits are down 10.5%, seasonally adjusted and compared to the previous quarter. The Mining sector saw the greatest decline in profits before income tax, with a decline of 11%, followed by the Transport, Postal, and Warehousing which is down 10.6%. The news is brighter for sectors like Manufacturing which lead with a gain of 11.3% in profits before income tax, followed by Wholesale and Trade at 4.9% and Information Media and Telecommunications with an increase of 3.1%.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics provides statistics on a wide range of economic, industry, environment and energy, people and regional matters that cover government, business, and the broader community.