Weak growth under wage agreements

Wage growth under bargaining agreements at best stood still during the first three months of the year.

Overall, Department of Employment figures show that average annualised wage growth declined 0.3 percentage points to an annualised 2.7 per cent in the March quarter.

Agreements in the private sector showed no change from the previous three months to stand at an annual rate of 2.9 per cent, but public sector agreements sank 0.6 percentage points to 2.6 per cent, the report released on Thursday shows.