The release of the Public Sector employment data for the March 2018 quarter allows us to take a look at which regions have seen the greatest increases in the past 12 months, and since the ALP came to power in 2015.
What we see, when considering Full-time equivalents (FTE), is an increase of 3.4% for the year to March 2018 which has been split between a 3.0% increase in regional Queensland and 3.7% in Greater Brisbane. Brisbane North, Ipswich and Sunshine Coast have all seen very strong growth this year. Since March 2015 Sunshine Coast is the stand-out with 23.3% growth (or an additional 2,420 FTEs).
In our own region Cairns saw growth of 3.1% y/y while Townsville saw slower growth (just 2.2%).
Since the Palaszczuk ALP Government took over Public Sector FTEs have grown 10.9% (actually some what higher than this if we allow for the fact that they came to power in mid-Feb 2015…see here for details) with growth in Greater Brisbane of 10.3% and 11.5% in the Rest of Queensland.
Cairns has grown at close to the regional average up 11.4% while Townsville has seen just 7.6% growth in that time.
While the Government have talked about supporting jobs in regional Queensland, and certainly some programs appear to have done that, this data suggests that when it came to their own direct hiring they have actually stimulated very little extra direct employment in the regions. If FTE growth in the regions had been at the same pace as in Greater Brisbane there would have been only 1,140 fewer FTEs across the regions than we currently have. Indeed if we exclude the SEQ regions of the Sunshine and Gold Coasts then Public Sector FTE growth in regional Queensland shrinks to just 7.9% since Mar 2015, well below the pace in the SE corner.
Mar-18 | Mar-17 | % | Mar-15 | % | ||
FTE | FTE | y/y | FTE | since Mar 15 | ||
Brisbane – East | 4,918 | 4,734 | 3.9 | 4,537 | 8.4 | |
Brisbane – North | 9,642 | 8,942 | 7.8 | 8,254 | 16.8 | |
Brisbane – South | 18,940 | 18,520 | 2.3 | 17,859 | 6.1 | |
Brisbane – West | 3,624 | 3,482 | 4.1 | 3,263 | 11.0 | |
Brisbane Inner City | 44,201 | 43,160 | 2.4 | 40,536 | 9.0 | |
Ipswich | 14,457 | 13,570 | 6.5 | 12,740 | 13.5 | |
Logan – Beaudesert | 10,391 | 9,998 | 3.9 | 9,352 | 11.1 | |
Moreton Bay – North | 9,040 | 8,760 | 3.2 | 8,017 | 12.8 | |
Moreton Bay – South | 3,380 | 3,225 | 4.8 | 2,974 | 13.7 | |
Greater Brisbane | 118,594 | 114,391 | 3.7 | 107,533 | 10.3 | |
Cairns | 13,309 | 12,904 | 3.1 | 11,946 | 11.4 | |
Fitzroy | 9,776 | 9,583 | 2.0 | 9,146 | 6.9 | |
Darling Downs – Maranoa | 4,999 | 4,932 | 1.4 | 4,782 | 4.5 | |
Gold Coast | 19,104 | 18,260 | 4.6 | 16,014 | 19.3 | |
Mackay | 6,508 | 6,326 | 2.9 | 5,893 | 10.4 | |
Queensland – Outback | 6,095 | 5,971 | 2.1 | 5,950 | 2.4 | |
Sunshine Coast | 12,797 | 12,080 | 5.9 | 10,376 | 23.3 | |
Toowoomba | 7,544 | 7,353 | 2.6 | 6,781 | 11.2 | |
Townsville | 12,805 | 12,526 | 2.2 | 11,903 | 7.6 | |
Wide Bay | 11,719 | 11,543 | 1.5 | 11,055 | 6.0 | |
ROQ | 104,656 | 101,477 | 3.0 | 93,847 | 11.5 | |
QLD | 223,250 | 215,868 | 3.4 | 201,379 | 10.9 |