Wage increases for Australia's workers have been the predominant occurrence in the quarter ending September, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said Wednesday.

The statistics bureau said annual wage growth in the private sector was at 3.5 percent by this measure, compared to the 2.8 percent recorded in the previous quarter.

This has been consistent with the Reserve Bank's estimates that Australia's labour market will undergo a tight squeeze as more skilled job offerings rise more than the supply.

To keep workers from moving into other better opportunities, employers are dangling incentives such as better pay and more benefits.

The index of total hourly rates of pay, excluding bonuses, rose by 1.1 percent in the September quarter seasonally adjusted.

Economists said the wage increase at the moment is not a threat to the government's 3 percent inflation target for the year as labour productivity still lagged behind. However, there might be an impact in the first quarter of 2011 as demand for more labour could outpace the supply.

In a related Bloomberg News report, the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations' skilled vacancies index in November was 44.5 points, 5.9 percent higher than in November 2009.

The department's internet vacancy index rose 2.5 per cent for the month of October to 96.1 points, to be 20.1 per cent higher than in October 2009