Wages for Canterbury construction workers are rising faster than in the rest of the country.

That is revealed in the Labour Cost Index, made public yesterday, which shows the Canterbury construction workers who received a pay rise got on average 6.9 per cent in the year to June 2012.

Construction workers in the rest of the country who received a pay rise got an average of 3.9 per cent.

The index does not show how many workers did not receive a pay rise.

Across New Zealand and across industries, workers who received a pay rise in the year to June got an average increase of 3 per cent.

Canterbury economist Robin Clements of UBS said the wage rises for Canterbury construction workers was not putting pressure on what other construction workers were being paid around the country so far.

"It's not happened yet but I still think it will," he said.

Nationally, private salary and ordinary time wages rose 2.1 per cent in the year to June 2012 and 0.5 per cent in the June quarter.

Public sector wages and salaries increased only 1.6 per cent in the June year.

Also published yesterday was the Quarterly Employment Survey for the June quarter 2012. It shows it has taken 18 months for the number of filled jobs in Canterbury to begin to grow after the September 2010 earthquake.

Clements said the number of filled jobs slumped most after February 22, by 5 per cent, and was now beginning to increase, but the increase of 0.5 per cent in the year to June 2012 was "meagre".

The biggest rises were in retail, construction and wholesale trade jobs in Canterbury in the year to June 2012, industries which were some of the hardest hit by the Canterbury earthquakes.

Statistics NZ said it was the first annual rise in filled jobs in Canterbury since September 2010. Fulltime employment rose 2.7 per cent while part-time employment fell 2 per cent in Canterbury.

Manufacturing in Canterbury was the sector with the biggest fall in filled jobs for the June year.

In the past six months recruitment surveys have reported employers intend hiring but the QES data does not show many more filled jobs in Canterbury.

Clements said until growth in filled jobs was more than 5 per cent, Canterbury would not be back to where it was.

The Household Labour Force Survey, due tomorrow, was considered the official data on employment and it might reveal a more optimistic picture of job growth in the region, Clements said.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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