Guess which sector got Australia's biggest pay rise this year

Mining is the clear winner when it comes to salaries in Australia’s job sector but it’s the online shopping boom that has given related services a healthy pay rise this year.

According to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, postal and transport workers are among the biggest beneficiaries of pay rise thanks to the growing online shopping industry.

Related: Australians set for world's biggest pay rise

Altogether, transport, postal and warehousing got an average weekly wage rise of 9.7 per cent over the last 12 months.

The other surprise entrant on the list was wholesale trade which at an 8.9 percent rise overtook mining at 7.1 per cent.

The weakest growth in ordinary time hourly rates was health care and social assistance, up 2.6 per cent, and retail sector workers, up 2.7 per cent.

Unsurprisingly, the figures also reveal that mining remains Australia’s top-earning profession, with an average weekly wage of $2272.30.

Related: Mining boom making us 'lazy and vulnerable'

This is followed by professional, scientific and technical services at $1622.80 and financial and insurance services on $1591.90.

Accommodation and food service averaged the lowest weekly wage at $955.90.

In an earlier report released by the ABS, it was revealed that total hourly rates of pay, excluding bonuses, rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.0 per cent in the June quarter.

The wage price index rose 3.7 per cent from a year earlier, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

RBC senior economist Su-Lin Ong said the numbers were within the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) expectations of solid but restrained wages growth.

Photos: Australia's biggest mining jobs and what they pay

Commonwealth Bank senior economist Michael Workman said wage increases continued to be strong and he didn't know if they could be sustained.

"I think a lot of industries are under quite extreme pressure because these kind of wage increases are way above what they can afford to pay, given the pressure they're facing from a very high Australian currency," Mr Workman said.

"Import competition is extreme for industry sectors.

"The one that gets most attention is manufacturing, namely the car industry, but a third of manufacturing is related to food production and they are under intense pressure from lower-cost imports," Mr Workman said.

What do you make of these numbers? Have your say on our Facebook page