Advertised salaries now outpacing official wage growth data, new SEEK report says, as hirers scramble for talent

Advertised starting salaries are 4.1% higher on average than those offered in July 2021, a new SEEK report says, suggesting wages offered to fresh hires are rising faster than pay packets for existing workers.

In its new monthly SEEK Advertised Salary Index, the employment portal said it has analysed more than 10 million unique job ads since 2016 to decipher how listed salaries are moving.

The data — which draws not only on salaries listed on public job ads, but salary data employers provide directly to SEEK itself — found advertised salaries have risen 2.1% between April and July, and 0.4% over the month alone.

The uptick is broad-based, SEEK said, reflecting the way a historically low unemployment rate and sharp skills shortages have rippled across the economy.

The new dataset shows “employers are responding to the tight labour market by increasing advertised salaries”, SEEK senior economist Matt Cowgill said.

“Unlike previous labour market booms, such as the mining boom, this is not a situation in which some parts of the country pull ahead much more rapidly than the rest.

“The labour market has been almost uniformly strong.”

While every industry sector surveyed experienced advertised salary growth over the year, standouts include the design and architecture field, where advertised salaries are now 7.1% higher than they were in July 2021.

Information and communications technology (ICT) employers have bumped their advertised salaries by 6.2%, reflecting how the digital skills shortage has rattled the sector.

The average full-time advertised salary for ICT roles was $130,121 in the year to July 2022, SEEK said.

Other fields which experienced the greatest year-on-year growth in advertised salaries include:

• Trades and services: 6.1%;
• Administration & Office Support: 5.8%;
• Mining, Resources & Energy: 5.7%;
• Real Estate & Property: 5.7%;
• Sport & Recreation: 5.2%;
• Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics: 5.2%;
• Accounting: 4.9%; and
• Marketing & Communications: 4.7%.

Even lower-paid roles experienced a pay bump over the year.

Roles with salaries up to $63,000 per year saw their average advertised salary lift 4.4%, the second-highest increase of any pay bracket covered in the SEEK data.

The uptick is even more pronounced when assessing advertised salaries in pre-pandemic 2020.

“Overall, advertised salaries for jobs in the lowest-paid band were 7.1% higher in July 2022 than they were in February 2020, while advertised salaries for the highest-paid were 4.3% higher in July 2022 than in February 2020,” the report said.

“This reflects the very strong demand for workers in lower-paid industries, such as Hospitality & Tourism.”

While the data suggests positive outcomes for workers, the SEEK figures overshoot the latest Wage Price Index, which shows wages overall have grown just 2.6% over the year to July.

The disparity suggests advertised salaries are rising significantly faster than salaries for those who are already employed — and hiring businesses may be less inclined to list a precise salary on their public job ads, as existing employees may use them to petition for their own wage hikes.

And an overall advertised salary uptick of 4.1% still falls far behind the Consumer Price Index, which surged by 6.1% over the year to July.

Nevertheless, SEEK suggests its data will precede salary growth represented in official Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

“The pick-up in advertised salaries is likely to precede a broader increase in wages growth across the economy,” the report said.