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Yesterday we took a look at the latest QLD Public Sector work force data for the June 2018 quarter (see here) where we noted that Public Sector full-time equivalent employment numbers continue to grow much faster than population. Since March 2015 FTE numbers in the Public Sector are up 11.9%. Population estimates from the ABS at a regional level are only produced annually for the year to June so we have calculated the estimated population levels as at March 2015 by applying the average of the past 2 years annual growth rates in each region for the three months between March and June 2015. We estimate that population in Queensland has grown 5.3% between March 2015 and June 2018, that is at less than half the pace of growth in the Public Sector FTEs.
We can also consider the data between Greater Brisbane and the Rest of Queensland. Here we see Public Sector FTEs are up 11.5% in Greater Brisbane but up 12.4% in the Rest of Queensland. However, population growth in Greater Brisbane has been 7.5% while in the Rest of Queensland it is just 3.1%. The difference becomes even more marked if we remove the effect of the the Gold and Sunshine Coasts from the Rest of Queensland data and create “SEQ” (Greater Brisbane plus the Gold and Sunshine Coasts) and “Bush” (Rest of QLD less the Gold and Sunshine Coast). Then we see that FTEs are up 13.7% in SEQ but just 8.5% in the Bush. However, population growth in SEQ was 8.6% while in the Bush it actually fell 1.6%.
Relative to population growth the regions have done better than the capital. The variance between FTE and population growth has been 4.0% in Greater Brisbane but 9.3% in the Rest of Queensland; in SEQ it’s 5.1% and 10.1% in the Bush.
Within Greater Brisbane, the Inner City accounts for almost 40% of the capital’s Public Sector FTEs and yet here, despite population having grown by 11.9% the FTE numbers are up only 10.8%. By contrast in Brisbane West population is up 3.0% but Public Sector FTEs are up a massive 27.4%.
In the regions we see big variances in the Gold Coast where population growth of 10.7% has seen FTEs increase at almost double that pace (+20.9%) and the Sunshine Coast where population is up 12.2% but FTEs grew by 24.6%. Toowoomba has also seen impressive relative FTE growth (+12.6%) despite population only growing by 2.8%.
In our own area, Cairns population is up by 3.8% but Public Sector FTEs have grown by 12.5%. The population in Townsville has actually fallen slightly (down 1.7%) yet FTEs are up 7.7% (well below the regional average but still healthy relative to population).
We are proud to have CBC Staff Selection as supporters of the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend Employment and Jobseeker data series