New figures revealing Aussie bosses are offering the fastest pay rises in years but wage acceleration unlikely to help most workers

Australian bosses are starting to offer potential staff members the fastest pay rise in years, but it will be little comfort to the vast majority of the national workforce.

Fresh figures released by Seek shows advertised salaries growth has re-accelerated in March up 0.4 per cent over the month.

In total, employers are offering a 4.1 per cent pay bump to staff compared with last year – which is the fastest jump since July 2024.

Seek chief economist Blair Chapman says while workers would welcome the re-acceleration of wages, it is unlikely to help the majority of Australians.

“With most people unable to switch jobs immediately to take advantage of the faster advertised salary growth right now, it may offer little relief, as households contend with rising fuel prices, higher mortgage repayments, a softening economy, and growing concerns about job security,” he said.

While pay per job was on the rise, the total number of jobs ads actually decreased down a further 0.4 per cent in March compared with February or 2.9 per cent over the year.

The number of Australians applying for new roles has also declined by 0.5 per cent in March, although workers looking for a new job still remain elevated.

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Artificial intelligence is on the rise

While employers are offering more per role, they are also looking for workers to have skills related to artificial intelligence (AI).

According to Seek, jobs referencing AI are up 75.2 per cent over the last 12 months.

These include job ads for information and communications technology, where it has jumped by 11.4 per cent, marketing and communication where mentions are up 5.5 per cent and science and technology where ads are up 4.7 per cent.

Even employers with low exposure to AI are still looking for these skills, up 1.3 per cent this year.

“Job ads referencing AI continue to grow, though at less than 2 per cent, only represent a small portion of total job ads,” Mr Chapman said.

“Given the events that have played out globally over the past month this slight moderation is unsurprising.

“We can expect this increased uncertainty to have employers feeling a little more cautious in the near term until a clearer view of the situation emerges.”

Separate data released by the CSIRO shows despite some high profile job cuts at Australian companies-including Atlassian, WiseTech and Telstra – AI is still creating more roles than it is costing.

According to the CSIRO’s analysis of hiring patterns of thousands of firms over several years, researchers found that companies adopting AI are advertising more jobs and jobs with broader skill requirements compared with firms that do not have an AI strategy.

CSIRO workforce and productivity research team lead Dr Claire Mason says for workers, the message is not that jobs are disappearing, but that jobs are changing.

“AI isn’t replacing workers. Australians need to be working with and harnessing AI, and learning how to use technology to augment their human intelligence,” Dr Mason said.