The July ABS Labour Force data released this morning allows us to update the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Regional Employment Trend data for all of Queensland’s regions. Despite the (seasonally adjusted) employment data at the State level showing a decline in employment of 6,200 for the month, Cairns managed to record …read more
The data for the second quarter CPI shows (as generally expected) that inflation has moved further above the RBA’s target range of 2-3%. Headline CPI was up 1.8% q/q for a y/y increase of 6.1% (up from 5.2% in the March quarter). The RBA’s Core inflation measure also increased; up …read more
The Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend data for June shows employment in Cairns lifted to another new record high with an additional 500 people in work since last month. The annual increase is now 10,800, or 8.3%. However, despite the lift in the number employed a jump in participation to another …read more
Today’s release by Tourism Research Australia of the National Visitor Survey for the year to March 2022 confirms what those living up here have known for some time (and we’ve been writing about for the past two years); domestic tourism in the Far North has been going gangbusters! Domestic tourism …read more
We’ve heard, and written, plenty about the shortage of rental properties in the Far North. The rental vacancy rate in the Cairns region currently sits at a record low 0.5% and rents on houses and units are up 15-18% for the year. Nevertheless, the 2021 Census shows a sharp increase …read more
The ABS has started its staged release of 2021 Census data this morning; we will see further releases throughout the rest of this year and into early 2023. There is, obviously, an enormous range of data available from the Census so this first look we have focused on just two …read more
The biannual report on the status of the Queensland Public Service workforce for March 2022 shows that Public Service headcount grew by 1.9% y/y and now represents 10.5% (its lowest level since March 2016) of the total number employed in the State. Over the course of the year total employment …read more
The Australian labour market strengthened again in May. Employment lifted by 60,600 (with an increase in full-time positions of 69,400) and the unemployment rate remained steady at 3.9%. The fact that hours worked per capital rose by 0.8% m/m and now sits at a 11-year high of 88 hrs/capita indicates …read more
Up to now Conus has used X-12-ARIMA for the seasonal adjustment and trend estimation of a variety of regional data sets, including the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Regional Employment data. X-12-ARIMA was the successor to the X-11 method implemented by the US Census Bureau and is used by many statistical agencies …read more
Latest data from the ABS for the 2020/21 financial year shows the total number of businesses in the Cairns Regional Council area grew by 289 over the past year. If we compare to the most recent pre-COVID data (i.e. 2018/19) we see 229 more businesses. Between 2019 and 2021 the …read more