Talking QLD labour force data on ABC Far North

Pete spoke to Kier Shorey on ABC Far North this morning about yesterday’s Queensland labour force data (read our comments here). You can listen to the interview below.

Strong labour force data but QLD lags again

The August labour force data for Australia came in stronger than expected with a very solid lift in the number employed of 44,000 (market expectations had centred around 18,000) which saw the headline unemployment rate unchanged at 5.3%  as participation also lifted slightly (all seasonally adjusted data). The vast bulk …read more

Greater Brisbane building approvals growth is coming from outside the city

Yesterday we released the Conus Trend Regional Building Approvals QLD data for July derived from the original ABS data at the SA4 level. We noted that while year on year declines in approvals in QLD (-1.9% y/y) were coming from the Regions (-6.0% y/y) the Greater Brisbane area was still …read more

Pete talking about the results for QLD from yesterday’s GDP release

Following on from yesterday’s GDP release (see here for our post) and an article in today’s Courier Mail, Pete spoke to John MacKenzie on radio 4CA this morning. You can listen to the interview below.

Slowdown in QLD building approvals is coming from the regions

Today saw the release of the original regional building approvals data from the ABS for July. Last week we saw QLD’s Trend approvals drop by 0.3% m/m and 1.9% y/y (see here for details). Today’s data (when seen through the lens of the Conus Trend series) shows us that those …read more

GDP lifts and revisions push it higher still. In QLD public sector acts as a drag

The second quarter GDP data released this morning came in somewhat higher than expectations (although the better than expected numbers came about largely from “statistical discrepancy’ adding 0.2 ppts). The market had been looking for real GDP to lift 0.7-0.8% for the quarter to give a 2.7% y/y figure. The …read more

Updated regional population data. Cairns thumping Townsville

The ABS today revised their regional population data for 2016 and 2017, so we wanted to update our post from April (see original here) to reflect the revised data. At the SA4 level Cairns increased from 2016 to 2017 by 3,061 people (or 1.2%). We can dig deeper into the …read more

Building Approvals continue to drift lower. In QLD it’s mainly houses falling

ABS data for July residential building approvals show them down 5.2% m/m, -5.6% y/y (seasonally adjusted) after a solid move higher last month (which was revised slightly higher still). The less volatile Trend series shows a m/m decline of 1.3%, down 2.5% y/y; this is the first year-on-year decline in …read more

Jobseeker Trend remains stable in Cairns

With the ABS regional labour force data, and the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend of that data, showing the unemployment situation improving slightly in Cairns over the past couple of months it’s a little surprising that today’s Trend analysis of the July Jobseeker data from the Dept of Social Services shows …read more

Regions beating Greater Brisbane in jobs stakes; but end of the mining boom still hangs over them

Today’s Conus/CBC Staff Selection Regional Employment Trend data allow us to take a look at what is happening across Queensland with regard to the split between Greater Brisbane and the Rest of Queensland; and what it shows us is that the regions are currently doing rather better than the capital. …read more

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