The release of the June Conus/CBC Staff Selection Regional Employment Trend data shows employment growth in Greater Brisbane is running at 1.9% for the year while the Rest of QLD lags behind at just 1.3%. Over the year Greater Brisbane has added 23,900 to Trend employment while the Regions have added just 16,400. The Trend unemployment rate in Greater Brisbane now sits at 6.3%; it is 6.4% in the Rest of QLD.
Within our own region we continue to see solid strength in Cairns. Another 400 were added to Trend employment in June to bring the total to the year up to 21,200 (a rate of increase of 18.9%). The Trend unemployment rate edged slightly higher to 4.1% but this was despite another uptick to Trend Participation which now sits at a more than 6-year high.
To our south Townsville continues to struggle. In spite of an increase in Trend employment of 400 this month the annual total remains down 1,100 (at a rate of -1.0%). Of particular concern is the sharp decline in Trend participation (down 2.7 ppts for the year) and the fact that the ‘core’ 25-45 year old labour force has seen employment fall by 3,300 over the course of the past 12 months. The Trend unemployment rate sits at 6.7% but would be much higher were it not for the fall in participation.
The full Conus/CBC Staff Selection Regional Employment Trend data is available for download below. Please feel free to use this data but kindly acknowledge Conus/CBC Staff Selection when you do so.
Conus/CBC Staff Selection Regional Employment Trend QLD – June 2019