A survey of 609 senior business decision-makers by the Australian HR Institute found that employers expected to lift salaries by an average of 3.8 per cent over the 12 months to July 2025. The survey, which was conducted last month, also asked employers about their plans for recruitment and redundancies this quarter. It found that while 27 per cent of employers planned to make roles redundant between July and September – up from 23 per cent in the previous quarter – 45 per cent of organisations still planned to increase their overall staffing levels, compared with just 3 per cent that expected to reduce their headcount.

Sarah McCann-Bartlett, the institute’s chief executive, said the combination of higher redundancy intentions and strong recruitment intentions suggested employers were restructuring their organisations rather than embarking on outright job cuts. “This is potentially about the different skills that are needed as more organisations embrace digitisation, automation and AI in pursuit of higher productivity and growth,” Ms McCann-Bartlett said.