States with the highest average salary in Australia

jobs in Australia — A job advert for a local fast food outlet hangs on a wall in a shopping center located in central Sydney, Australia, in this March. Reuters/David Gray

Jobs market in Australia has added 319,000 jobs this year up to August. New data reveals that the Goldfields, Esperance and Kalgoorlie are the regions that recorded the highest average salary advertised in job ads SEEK last financial year at $99,236. They headed the list of major cities and regions in SEEK’s City Spotlight research.

Hedland, Karratha and Pilbara ($98,027) and Canberra ($85,819) are next on the list. Also included in the top five paying locations are Sydney ($84,525) and Melbourne ($81,842).

Some of the highest-paying regions outside of WA are Alice Springs and Central Australia ($78,146), Newcastle, Maitland and Hunter ($77,561). The list also includes Wollongong, Illawarra and South Coast ($74,927), and Whyalla and Eyre Peninsula ($73,962).

Jobs that attract the highest salaries are the in the mining industry, as well as resources and energy and in information and communication technology (ICT). For instance, managers in the mining, resources and energy sector in Hobart are offered on average $147,500 annually despite the average salary being $73,594.

Australia’s employment growth

Jobs hiring in Australia has reportedly surged the strongest since the global financial crisis. "Australia's recent strength in employment growth is being driven by just four industries: construction, healthcare and social assistance, education and training, and accommodation and food services," Tapas Strickland, senior economist at the NAB, said, adding that these industries combined have been responsible for 91 percent of the country’s employment growth.

With the Seek data, the NAB found that some of those sectors that added the most workers were also among those where salaries increased the most. "The data shows average advertised salaries are rising the most in sub-sectors of construction, engineering, education, and hospitality," Strickland said, according to Sydney Morning Herald.

The NAB said industries where job ads are increasing faster than the national average are also among those where salary rates are rising the most. The findings reflects the view RBA governor Philip Lowe has presented that there were already signs that wage pressures were building in some sectors.

But for some private sector workers, wage growth is still slow. Based on the country’s wage price index (WPI), private sector hourly wage rates rose by only 1.78 percent in the year to June. It was the slowest pace on record. Consumer price inflation (CPI) was running at 1.9 percent over the past year.