Fed: Where have all the NSW workers gone?

AAP General News (Australia)
08-08-2000
Fed: Where have all the NSW workers gone?

New figures show that workers are increasingly deserting the certainty of wages and
salaries to become contractors and run their own business.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics says there were 7.188 million wage and salary earners
in Australia in February this year, up just 27,000 or 0.4 per cent in trend terms for
the year.

Yet, over the same period, the ABS found the total number of people in work rose 260,000
to just under nine million.

The discrepancy is due to wage and salary figures not including people who run their
own business, or who are directors or sub-contractors.

The ABS says the shift away from wages and salaries is most evident in New South Wales,
where total employment rose over 100,000 in the year to February, giving the state the
country's best unemployment rate.

But the number of wage and salary earners fell over the same period by 118,000, meaning
an additional 218,000 workers do not receive wages or salary.

New South Wales was the only state to record a fall in wage and salary earners.

AAP RTV ss/mfh/wz/jn n

KEYWORD: WAGES (CANBERRA)

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