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Today saw the release of the ABS original regional employment data. As always, we prefer to focus on this data through the lens of the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Employment Trend. When doing so we see a Tale of Two Cities in the North of the state.
Cairns once again sees a small decline in employment, down 800, with declines in full-time employment of 2,000 for the month. However, when paired with a weakening Participation Rate, this is reflected in a slight fall in the Trend unemployment rate to 7.4%. In Townsville, on the other hand, an increase of 300 in Trend employment (and 500 in full-time employment) comes at the expense of an increase in the Trend unemployment rate to 10.0% (its highest reading since Jan 2017) as participation increases once again. Over the course of the year Cairns has lost 8,000 from Trend employment (and seen Participation drop by 3.7 ppts) while Townsville has increased employment by 3,600 but seen Participation up by 4.2 ppts. The net result is that both centres have seen the Trend unemployment rate increase by 2.2% for the year. The chart below, which looks at employment in relation to the size of the working population clearly shows the different trajectories that both centres are on.
The gap in Trend employment growth rates that we had seen open up between Greater Brisbane and the Rest of Queensland has closed somewhat; Greater Brisbane now stands at 2.7% while it is 3.1% in the Rest of Queensland. Despite that, the Trend unemployment rate in Greater Brisbane has declined by 0.3% over the year (to 6.1%) while in the Rest of Queensland it is up by 0.3% (to 6.3%); the apparent paradox again caused by the Participation Rate which has increased by much more in the Rest of Queensland than in Greater Brisbane (+1.3 ppts v +0.5 ppts).
The full Conus/CBC Staff Selection Employment Trend data is available for download below. Please feel free to use this data (for non-commercial purposes) but kindly ensure you acknowledge Conus/CBC Staff Selection when you do so.
Conus/CBC Staff Selection Employment Trend QLD – May 2018
Today also saw the quarterly release of Industry Employment data from the ABS. They provide this data only as a four-quarter average. We have dis-aggregated that data and then created the Conus Industry Employment Trend data series which provides a more timely look at what is happening at the industry level. While this data cannot easily be compared to the monthly Trend it does provide us with some indication of in which industry sectors employment has been lost and gained across the various regions. The charts below provide that data for Cairns, Townsville, Greater Brisbane and the Rest of Queensland.
The full set of Conus Industry Employment data can be obtained on request by contacting Pete Faulkner at pete@conus.com.au
We are proud to have CBC Staff Selection as supporters of the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend Employment and Jobseeker data series