The recovery is proving a slow slog

Any thoughts of a snap-back, V-shaped recovery in the Australian economy are long gone. With Melbourne only half-way through a second wave, 6 week lock-down the third quarter GDP data (which we will not see until December) may be negative, although our model is still projecting a modest q/q gain, …read more

Payrolls data suggests there should be some improvement coming for Cairns

Today’s release from the ABS of the Payrolls data to the week ending 8th August suggests that we might expect some improvement in Cairns’ Conus/CBC Staff Selection series for August when released later next month. Payrolls data (sourced from the ATO’s Single Touch Payroll system) showed payrolls in the Cairns …read more

Trend unemployment lifts across QLD regions. Cairns hits 8.7%

Not surprisingly, given the poor State performance noted last week (see here for details), the labour markets across most of QLD have deteriorated in July according to the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend. The Trend unemployment rate, which sits at 8.8% in QLD, lifted to 8.7% in Greater Brisbane and 9.0% …read more

JobSeekers fall in Queensland and Cairns as the better health outcomes pay dividends

Today sees yet more evidence of the better economic outcomes coming from the better health situation being enjoyed by Queensland. Original JobSeeker data from the Dept of Social Services for July showed recipients up over 7,000 across the nation (+0.4% m/m). NSW added almost 1,500 (+0.3% m/m) while Victoria, not …read more

Employment up 110K+ again, but QLD does badly

The July Labour Force data from the ABS this morning showed employment had grown another 114,700 in the month. While the last 2 months have seen significant recovery we should not lose sight of the fact that employment remains more than 500,000 below where we started the year. Another sharp …read more

Airport Passenger numbers start to rebound in Cairns

The re-starting of the domestic tourism industry is clearly underway in the Far North. The latest data from the Cairns Airport show total passenger numbers jumping to 109,104 in July (from a low in 11,153 in April). Although total passenger numbers are down 78% from a year earlier the domestic …read more

Weekly Payrolls Data shows QLD +0.9% m/m while VIC is down 1.5% m/m

The divergence between those states enjoying a better health outcomes and those not has become clearer with the release this morning of the ABS Weekly Payrolls data to July 25th (sourced from the ATO Single Touch Payroll system). While payrolls fell 0.1% m/m across Australia, QLD saw a 0.9% increase. …read more

Updated Google Mobility data

Last week we posted using the Google Mobility Data (Google LLC “Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports”. www.google.com/covid19/mobility/ Accessed: 10/8/20) as a proxy for economic activity (see here for the full details). Google’s data has now been updated to 4th August so we have updated our two measures (‘Activity’ and ‘Economic Activity’). …read more

Trend building approvals hit record low in Cairns in June

Today saw the release of the ABS original regional building approvals data for June, which allowed us to update the Conus Trend data series. While residential approvals fell 17.3% in Queensland in June (see here for more detail) today’s data shows that it’s the regions outside Greater Brisbane where the …read more

Google mobility data as a proxy for economic activity

Google have been providing data on their “Community Mobility Indexes” for some time  to help track the impacts of COVID-19 (you can get further details here). The indexes measure movement in six categories; Grocery & pharmacy Mobility trends for places like grocery markets, food warehouses, farmers markets, specialty food shops, …read more

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