Employment continues to lift in Cairns but surging participation sees unemployment rate up

The release by the ABS of the Sept original regional labour force data today allows us to update our Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend for the QLD regions. With the state-wide Trend unemployment rate lifting to 6.6% (see commentary earlier) it is no surprise to see the Trends at a regional level also higher. In Greater Brisbane we see the unemployment rate at 6.4% (unch for the year) while in the Rest of QLD it is up to 6.8% (up 0.8 ppts for the year). Employment in Greater Brisbane is growing at 3.0% (better than state and national rates of 2.4%) while in the Rest of QLD it is just 1.8%.

In our own region Cairns continues to enjoy solid employment growth (up 14,100 or 11.9% for the year) but a surge in participation (which takes it to a 6 1/2 year high) has caused the Trend unemployment rate to lift to 6.2%. Encouragingly for Cairns, almost all employment growth over the year has come in the full-time sector with only very modest gains in part-time positions. The Trend median time searching for work has also been falling quite sharply and now sits at just 10 weeks; well below the regional average of 18 weeks and down 3 months from a year ago.

In Townsville, which has been coming off a very low base, employment growth continues (up 3.1% for the year) although here too increased participation has meant that the Trend unemployment rate remains elevated at 8.8%. The big difference for Townsville is that participation is still well down on historic levels (although at its best in 18 months). Youth unemployment in Townsville is a particular concern (19.5%) and is the 4th worst in the state.

The full Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend data set 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 Trend Regional Employment QLD – Sept 2019

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