The international comparisons shown here suggest, however, that growth in unit labour costs in Australia has still been on the high side over the past couple of years, given the rate of unemployment. (rba.gov.au)
The profits recovery has been driven by continued strong productivity growth in conjunction with subdued compensation growth (due to the weak labour market), which has seen unit labour costs fall by 5 per cent since June 2001 — the largest fall on record (Graph A4). (rba.gov.au)
Hence, nominal unit labour costs in Australia increased by around 25 per cent relative to our trading partners over this same period, contributing noticeably to the decline in competiveness (outside of the resources sector, which benefited from much higher commodity prices). (rba.gov.au)