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The original ABS regional labour force data for Oct released this morning allows us to update our own Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend data. Doing so makes it clear that, while the State as a whole is doing poorly (see here for commentary from last week), the regions are outscoring Greater Brisbane when it comes to job creation over the past year.
For the 12 months to October Trend employment growth in QLD has been just 1.1% (+26,400). The Rest of Queensland has seen Trend employment lift by 24,700 at a rate of 2.0% while Greater Brisbane has added just 1,600 employed at a rate of just 0.1%. This sees the Trend unemployment rate in Greater Brisbane at 6.4% while the Rest of Queensland is just 6.1% (Trend for QLD 6.2%). The only silver lining for the Greater Brisbane area is that full-time employment has lifted by 20,800 while part-time has dropped 19,100. In the Rest of Queensland both full and part-time employment is up but only by 6,600 for full-time; the bulk of Trend employment growth in the regions has been part-time (+18,200).
In our own region Cairns continues to see Trend employment growth picking up with another 600 positions added this month. Over the past 12 months a total of 3,400 have been added to Trend employment (although all of these have been part-time with full-time positions dropping by 500 over the at period). Trend employment growth now stands at 2.9% for the year. The Conus/CBC Staff Selection Unemployment Trend in Cairns is now 6.0% (below the State average) which is a slight increase on the previous month due to a pick up in Trend Participation.
Youth unemployment, for so long a real concern in Cairns. now sits at just 11.1% which is well below the State average of 12.9%.
To our South in Townsville we also see improvement despite Trend employment dipping slightly in Oct. The Trend unemployment rate has fallen to 6.9% and employment growth remains reasonably strong (although well off previous highs) at 1.8%. Trend full-time employment is up 3,600 in Townsville over the past 12 months. While things in Townsville have certainly improved during the year the one indicator which perhaps gives us a sense of the remaining weakness in the region is the Trend median search for a job which remains elevated at 35 weeks (it is just 15 across the State and 12 in Cairns).
The complete Conus/CBC Staff Selection data set is available for download below. Please feel free to sue this data but kindly acknowledge Conus/CBC Staff Selection when you do so.
Conus/CBC Staff Selection Regional Employment Trend QLD – Oct 2018
We are proud to have CBC Staff Selection as supporters of the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend Employment and Jobseeker data series