Australians have endured the largest cost-of-living shock in modern history.
The following chart deflates the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) official wage price index against the ABS’ cost of living index for employee households.
On this measure, Australian real wages in Q4 2024 were tracking 10.1% below the peak at around Q1 2012 levels.
The record decline in real wages has compelled households to take on second jobs to meet their financial obligations.
On Friday, the ABS released the Labour Account, which showed that a record one million Australians worked multiple jobs in Q4 2024.
As Alex Joiner from IFM Investors shows above, around one in 15 Australian employed persons (6.71%) worked multiple jobs in Q4 2024. This was also an equal record high.
Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro also showed that “the share of workers in Australia with multiple jobs has risen to be much higher than in the US or Canada, but remains below the share in New Zealand”.
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) latest Statement of Monetary Policy forecasts a slow rebound in real wages.
By Q2 2027, real wages will still be tracking 5.9% below the peak at Q4 2011 levels, according to the RBA’s forecasts.
As a result, the share of Australians working multiple jobs is likely to remain at historically high levels.
