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The Labour Force survey result for December, released this morning, relates to a period just before the full effect of the unfolding Omicron outbreak was felt and just as many States (notably NSW and Victoria) were starting to open up again. As a result the fact that it shows a healthy labour force is no surprise and is likely to be reversed (at least to some extent) once we have the Jan and Feb data to hand.
In December the number employed lifted by 64,800 (with 41,500 of those in full-time positions) and with participation unchanged this resulted in a sharp drop in the unemployment rate to 4.2% (from 4.6%). This is the lowest headline rate since August 2008. Over the year employment growth has been 2.9%.
In Queensland, where the effect of re-opening was felt less dramatically simply because there had been no comparable period of lock-down, employment was up 6,500 (although full-time positions lifted 10,100). Here too participation was unchanged and so the unemployment rate dropped to 4.7% (from 4.8%) and now sits at its lowest level since Feb 2009. Annual employment growth now sits at 3.5%.
Hours worked per capita nationally jumped to 87.0 hrs, while in Queensland there was a slight decline to 86.17. This is the first time in a year that hors worked per capita in QLD has fallen below that at the national level and provides evidence that the superior performance of the QLD labour market through 2021 is coming to an end as the other states begin the open up after periods of lock-down.
We are proud to have CBC Staff Selection as supporters of the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend Employment and Jobseeker data series