Employment climbs, wage pressures rise

The number of filled jobs is improving.

Data released this morning shows the number of filled jobs rose 0.5% in the last three months of last year and the number of full time equivalent employees rose 0.6%.

For the 2011 year, the number of filled jobs rose 1.9% and the number of full time equivalent employees rose 2.1%.

Household labour data, which is to be released on Thursday, should indicate whether the rise in the number of filled jobs is leading to a drop in unemployment or whether the rise is - as with earlier surges - more a case of part time employees moving to longer hours.

The parts of the economy where longer hours are being worked include electricity, gas, water and waste services - up nearly 20% for the year - and transport, postal and warehousing, along with rental hiring and real estate services, both up around 10%.

The Christchurch earthquake is expected to have had a considerable impact on these figures but at this point Statistics New Zealand has not separated out the earthquake factor.

The biggest drop in hours worked, perhaps surprisingly, is a 5.4% drop in information technology and telecommunications.

Average total weekly earnings, included in today's data, rose 2.6% for the year and now equate to $1016.95.

At the same time, labour costs data, also released today, shows wage and salary pressures steadily increasing.

Pay rose 2% overall for the 2011 year, with a 0.6% increase in the last three months of the year. This is the part of today's data usually watched most closely by the Reserve Bank and the result is higher than expected: the average market forecast was for a rise of 0.5%.

The figures also show that the government's restraint on the public sector is having some effect: after a decade where public sector salaries rose ahead of their private sector counterparts almost every quarter, the latest data shows public sector employees having an increase of 0.4% for the quarter and 1.8% for the year.

Private sector pay rose 0.7% for the quarter and 2% for the year. However, the restraint does not seem to be hitting local councils.

Council employees enjoyed a 1% increase for the last three months of 2011, and 2.3% increase for the year.