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The ABS release of labour force data for July showed Australia added 41,100 (seasonally adjusted) to total employment with 34,500 in full-time positions. With the participation rate lifting to its highest ever level (66.1) the headline unemployment rate remianed stuck at 5.2%. The Trend series showed 24,600 added to employment at a rate of 2.7% for the year and the Trend unemployment rate liftied to 5.3%, its highest level since August last year.
However, as the chart above makes clear, Queensland continues to do worse. Trend employment was up by just 6,100 at a rate of 2.1% for the year and the Trend unemployment rate lifted to 6.4%, its highest level since March 2015. The gap between Queensland and the nation as a whole has widened further.
Trend employment growth is just about keeping pace with the growth in the size of the working population (see chart below) and until such time as employment growth picks up we cannot expect to see the unemployment rate moving lower (barring a decline in participation).
One of our favourite measures of overall labour market strength is hours worked per capita of working age popualtion. Unfortunately, as we can see below, this measure has been falling for the past few months at both the state and national level. The decline in Queensland has been particuarly marked; at 86.01 hrs this now sits only a touch above the Dec 2016 low.
The ABS will release their regional labour force data next Thursday at which point we will be updating the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Regional Employment Trend series.
We are proud to have CBC Staff Selection as supporters of the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend Employment and Jobseeker data series