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Jobs boom, pay gloom: How women are getting more jobs but not enough money

Australia’s unemployment has fallen to 3.5 per cent the lowest level in almost 50 years after 88,000 jobs were created in June, according the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Jul 14, 2022, updated Jul 14, 2022
Women were getting more jobs but continued to be paid less

Women were getting more jobs but continued to be paid less

While that was remarkable given economists were expecting an extra 20,000 jobs, the data also showed the continuation of a major shift in who is getting the jobs.

The unemployment rate for female workers was now 3.6 per cent, according to the figures. Male unemployment was a much higher 4.3 per cent. Total unemployment in the state was 4 per cent.

In the past 10 years an extra 317,000 female jobs have been added in Queensland compared with only 209,000 for men.

The dramatic shift has a few reasons but largely it comes down to the traditional roles. Men have traditionally worked in industries like manufacturing or labour intensive jobs which have been decreasing while women have traditionally been employed in sectors like healthcare, which is booming. Women also were more likely to be in part time or casual work, which was also growing.

Men were still ahead in the number of jobs in Queensland with 1.4 million while women took up 1.3 million jobs.

While women is improving their job numbers, their pay is still well behind. A report from KPMG this week revealed Australian women were missing out on an additional $1 billion a week.

The report found that in 2020, women were paid an average of $36.89 an hour while men received $39.44.

KPMG said action to address the gender gap had stalled.

The latest data showing the higher than expected creation of 88,000 jobs in June was also expected to have an impact on the upcoming meeting of the Reserve Bank board.

ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said the female unemployment nationally fell to 3.4 per cent, the lowest level since 1974. The male unemployment nationally was 3.6 per cent, the lowest since 1976.

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“The large fall in the unemployment rate this month reflects more people than usual entering employment and also lower than usual numbers of employed people becoming unemployed,” he said.

Unions said despite the tight labour market there was still no broad increase in wages.

ACTU assistant secretary Liam O’Brien said everything that workers had been told would drive higher wages were now in alignment.

“But we are still seeing real wage cuts stretching into the distance,” he said.

“The reality is that wage growth is being held back by our bargaining system.”

 

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