The sad statistic that shows Australians are working ‘more for less’

The average Australian is working two extra hours a month compared to a year ago just to cope with the cost of living crisis, according to a conservative estimate.

The Reserve Bank’s 12 interest rate hikes in 13 months have caused Australians to put in more overtime or work extra work to pay their bills.

A closer look at official labor force data showed that workers in both full-time and part-time jobs worked 32.3 hours a week in June, up from 31.8 hours a year earlier.

And Australians typically work 138.6 hours a month, up from 136.4 hours in June 2022, when the rate increases were just beginning.

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said weak productivity growth meant companies were passing costs on to consumers, leading to more working hours to cope with cost-of-living pressures.

“It means Australians are working more for less,” he said.

“That’s the exact opposite of what we need to see at a time like this when we need downward pressure on inflation, we need upward pressure on real wages and we want to see a strong labor market translate into better outcomes for all Australians.”

While unemployment in June held at a 48-year low of 3.5 per cent as 32,600 jobs were created, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics also showed an increase in working hours.

Over the past year, working hours have increased by 4.7 per cent and Australians collectively worked 87.5 million more hours than the previous year.

In June alone, Australians worked six million more hours, logging 1.947 billion hours on the job in just one month.

When that is divided by the 14.046 million people with work, it came out to 138.6 hours a month or 32.3 hours a week on average, covering both full-time and part-time workers over a seven-day cycle.

A year earlier, Australians were working 1.86 billion hours a month.

Divided by the 13.636 million people in work as of mid-2022, they were working 136.4 hours a month or 31.8 hours a week.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ inaugural report ‘Measuring What Matters Australia’s First Wellbeing Framework’, published on Friday, used outdated information to suggest life was getting easier for home borrowers.

A section called ‘being financially secure and having access to housing’ compared the serviceability of housing in 2002-03 with 2019-20.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ inaugural ‘Measuring What Matters Australia’s First Wellbeing Framework’ report, published on Friday, used outdated information to suggest life was getting easier for home borrowers (public housing in Sydney pictured)

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said weak productivity growth meant companies were passing costs on to consumers, leading to more working hours to cope with cost-of-living pressures.

The situation for mortgage holders was described as “improved” despite interest rates rising 12 times in 13 months with further increases expected in 2023.

The welfare report’s information on “housing serviceability” was so out of date that it cited data from the 2019-20 fiscal year, when the Reserve Bank of Australia cut the cash rate four times: from 1.25% in July 2019 to 0.25% on March 20, 2020 at the start of the pandemic.

But since May 2022, just before the election, the RBA has raised interest rates 12 times, from a record low of 0.1 percent to an 11-year high of 4.1 percent, pausing only in April and July.

Far from being easier, a borrower with an average mortgage of $600,000 has seen their monthly payments increase by 64 percent to $3,789, up from $2,306.

Annual payments have skyrocketed to $17,796.

This occurred when variable rates on a Commonwealth Bank loan, for a borrower with a 20 percent deposit, increased to 6.49 percent, from 2.29 percent.

The welfare report praised the fact that people who wanted more work were able to get it, saying the situation had “improved”.

“(This) provides an indication of those people who want a job or who want to work more hours,” he said.

But the report acknowledged that real wages were falling as a result of inflation outpacing wage increases.

The wage price index of 3.7 percent in March was below the 7 percent inflation rate for the same period, which moderated to 5.6 percent in May.

“Nominal wages have recovered and are currently growing at the fastest rate in over a decade,” he said.

‘However, in recent years, real wages have been affected by high inflation.

“As inflation moderates over the next period, real wages are expected to grow again.”

In June alone, Australians worked six million more hours, logging 1.947 million hours on the job in just one month, up 4.7 per cent or 87.5 million more hours in a year.