Mark Beath over at Loose Change has written an excellent piece on a Courier Mail story regarding unemployment (and tourism jobs) in Cairns. The paper runs with the idea that unemployment in Cairns has fallen by 16% (from Dec ’12 to Dec ’13) based on an analysis of the Small Area Labour Market data …read more
Following a wonderful, if rather rough, week out of touch in the Coral Sea, we’re back in the saddle today. Looking back at last Thursday’s regional jobs data for March (which we commented on at the time), I have today taken a look at the youth (15-24yr) jobs data which had …read more
After the positive national and state jobs data for March released last week (see here), once again we are faced with very disappointing regional data in the Far North. The headline unemployment rate for Cairns is back above 10% (10.1%) for the first time in 2 years. The headline number …read more
After the surprise strength of last month’s jobs data, the markets were bracing for a disappointing set of jobs numbers this morning for the March data. In fact the result has once again surprised on the up-side with jobs up 18,100 (expectations had been for +2-7,000) and the headline unemployment …read more
Regular readers will know that we are in no way politically aligned but that we will take issue with “facts” being touted by pollies that are (at best) misleading. On Wednesday Minister for Tourism in QLD, Jann Stuckey, put out a press release spruiking the pick-up in QLD tourism data …read more
Following on from this morning’s post on the latest ABS Regional Population data (see here) I have taken some time to look at the data for the Cassowary Coast in a little more detail. The data quoted in the first post relates to Local Government Areas and notes a decline …read more
The ABS has released regional population estimates (as of end June 2013) this morning which show Townsville as the stand-out growth winner in the North.Total population in Australia was estimated at 23.1 million, an increase of 407,000 (+1.8%) over the year to June 2013. QLD enjoyed the third fastest growth …read more
This morning’s release of building approvals data showed a sharp 5% decline m/m in the country as a whole (this still left the annual increase at 23.2%), as units fell sharply (-7.7%); houses also fell 2.1%. These are always highly volatile numbers so the Trend series is much preferred; this …read more
Are you ready to catch the wave of the next “Fantastic 5”? A new Deloitte’s report (Positioning for Prosperity?…available here) identifies the five sectors that they estimate will overtake mining in the next 20 years and drive Australian growth. They are:-Gas – Agribusiness – Tourism – International Education – Wealth …read more
The Valuer-General’s property market movement report (available here) has some comments to make on land valuations in the Cassowary Coast region (as well as other areas). … “The residential market in the Cassowary Coast has been variable throughout the region since the last annual valuation in 2012 with market movements in a …read more