AWPI records strong wage growth as demand outstrips supply in Australian labour and services economy
The Airtasker Wage Price Index (AWPI), which records wage growth in Australia’s labour and service economy, has climbed 54% over a two year period from March 2019 (the base index) to 152.3 points in December 2021.
Driving the growth is a combination of rising demand and constrained labour supply.
AWPI is based on actual data generated by completed tasks transactions in the Airtasker marketplace which saw more than 200,000 posted tasks and weekly GMV (gross marketplace volume of $4.5m) in December 2021. The AWPI will be released quarterly.
Wages continue to increase in Australian service economy
The Home Services category, which includes jobs like removalists, cleaning and gardening, experienced the largest increase in wage growth while the accounting, legal and financial services categories remained stable.
Hospitality, after weathering prolonged shutdowns, is now experiencing significant wage growth, climbing from 95.4 points in September 2021 (below the index base in March 2019) to 148.1 points in December 2021 almost 18% higher than 12 months earlier. The Trades category has continued to see strong wage growth since mid-2020, as the first wave of Covid lockdowns eased with demand for home improvement continuing to rise with the increased amount of time people were spending at home. More broadly, the services economy and particularly cleaning has seen strong wages growth with strong demand and limited labour supply.
Commenting on the latest AWPI data, Airtasker co-founder and CEO Tim Fung said, “Airtasker’s economic data shows that Australia’s local labour and service economy is performing well and bouncing back strongly following the Covid lockdowns and with strong demand continuing to outstrip supply we’re seeing an increase in the wages going into the pockets of working Australians across a range of categories. For many service providers, their skills are worth more now than ever - so it’s a great time to be part of the flexible economy!”
We’ll be releasing this data each quarter. You can see (and play!) with the dataset here >>