Cairns Trend unemployment rate drops again

The ABS release of their original labour force July data for the regions today allows us to update our own Conus/CBC Staff Selection Regional Employment Trend data. We see Trend employment in Cairns lifted 1,000 in July (after June’s increase was also revised up) with 900 of those positions in …read more

The Chinese tourism boom is slowing

Today’s data from the ABS of Short Term Arrivals and Departures for June confirms the slowdown in the growth of Chinese tourism into the country. While arrivals into Australia grew 5.4% y/y (seasonally adjusted) the number from China was unchanged (seasonally adjusted) since last year and up just 2.3% on …read more

Queensland labour market disappoints (again)

The July labour force data released today was a mixed bag at the national level. Although (seasonally adjusted) employment dipped by 3,900 we saw the unemployment rate also dip to 5.3%. The reason…a decline inĀ  the participation rate. The average hours worked per member of the working age population remained …read more

Wages growth remains insipid…just as expected

Today saw the release of the June quarter Wages Price Index, and it shows us growth in wages stuck at the (expected) annual rate of 2.1%. Quarterly growth lifted a touch from the previous quarter (again, as expected) to register a 0.6% increase. When considering the split across the private …read more

Regional Trend shows approvals slowdown is all in the regions

Today saw the release of the ABS original regional building approvals data for June. Last week we saw the Trend data for Queensland showing a 5.2% decline for the year; today’s data (when seen through the Conus Trend series) confirms that this slowdown is all due to the regions. For …read more

Jobseekers data confirms the stabilisation in Cairns

Last weeks Conus/CBC Staff Selection Employment Trend data (see here) for Cairns suggested the labour market had entered a period of stabilisation. Today’s release by the Dept of Social Services of their Jobseeker data appears to confirm that when seen through the lens of the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Jobseeker Trend …read more

Nothing much to see from Building Approvals data

The June Building Approvals data out today doesn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know. Approvals were up 6.4% m/m (seasonally adjusted) after some upward revision to May’s numbers for a 1.6% y/y increase. However, for this highly volatile data-set (because of the very lumpy nature of large scale …read more

Pete talking jobs in Cairns on 4CA this morning

Following on from an article in today’s Cairns PostĀ Pete spoke to John MacKenzie on radio 4CA this morning about the latest Conus/CBC Staff Selection Employment Trend data and the recent Conus Industry Employment Trend. You can hear the segment below…

Trend unemployment rate dips in Cairns

The ABS regional labour force data needs to be seen through the lens of the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend to make much sense of the highly volatile original data. Today’s release of the data for June shows the Trend unemployment rate in Cairns dipping to 6.5% (from a downwardly revised …read more

No surprise from the inflation report

The ABS have released their quarterly measure of inflation pressures for the second quarter this year; and it contains no surprises. Inflation remains muted (+0.4% q/q and +2.1% y/y) with “core” inflation somewhat lower at +0.5% q/q and just +1.9% y/y. This result is very much as the markets had …read more

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