Mining wages fall back to earth

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By Leith van Onselen

If ever there was a sign of the slowdown in the resources industry, it was today’s wages data, released by the ABS, which revealed that wages growth in the mining industry slowed to just 2.4% in the year to March, the lowest rate of growth since 2000, and below the national average of 2.6% growth:

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Not surprisingly, the key mining state of Western Australia has borne the brunt of the decline in mining , with wages growth there falling to 2.6%, the lowest rate of growth since 2000 and around half the growth rate experienced in the heady days between 2007 and 2009:

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As for the future outlook for mining wage growth, well I’ll let you decide for yourself:

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.