The regions which have been doing best, and worst through 2020

We have recently expanded the coverage of our Conus and Conus/CBC Staff Selection Regional Employment Trend data series to include WA and now have regional data for NSW, Victoria, Queensland and WA. So, with the release of the Dec 2020 data recently, it seemed appropriate to take a look at …read more

The Gold Coast and Toowoomba lead the employment recovery in QLD. Cairns unemployment rate falls to 5.7%

The release of original regional employment data for December by the ABS allows us to update the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend series. While employment across Queensland has lifted 27,250 during 2020 this latest analysis shows that the bulk of those gains have come from regional Queensland (Rest of QLD added …read more

JobSeeker numbers edge up in December, but the trend still appears to be down

The Dept of Social Services data for JobSeekers shows total recipients edged higher in December. The number of those receiving JobSeeker or Youth Allowance (other) payments increased by 1.3% from November to 1.47 million. Our own Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend, and the ABS labour force survey data for the number …read more

Building Approvals in the North surge

Following last week’s data November release which showed year-on-year residential building approvals up 15% nationally and 32% in Queensland today we got the regional data release from the ABS which allows us to update our regional Conus Trend series. This showed that, although Greater Brisbane is doing better than the …read more

Cairns Airport passengers improve again; although for the year they’re still down 64%

December passengers (205,096) through Cairns Airport broke the 200,000 level for the first time since March. However, although the recovery continues to slowly build, this still represents a decline for the full calendar year of 64% from 2019. In 2020 just under 1.8 million passengers used Cairns Airport compared to …read more

JobSeekers drop almost another 3% in November

Latest data from the Dept. of Social Services shows that the number claiming JobSeeker or Youth Allowance (other) payments have fallen by 2.9% in November. This brings the total receiving the payments to 1,454,869, which is down 11.0% from the May highs. Numbers in Queensland fell at a similar pace …read more

Weekly Payrolls continue to improve but there are some concerns for Small Business (and Townsville)

The ABS weekly payrolls data (sourced from the ATO Single Touch Payroll system) updated its latest series yesterday and today. What we see is a clear national improvement being driven largely by the recovery in Victoria as the state continues to come out of lock-down. Victoria registered a 1.4% improvement …read more

Border openings showing in the Google Mobility data

The long grind back to something approaching ‘normal’ continues. The latest Google Mobility data to 6th Dec shows a steady improvement across all States in recent weeks as SA came out of its short lock-down and most State borders opened. WA and QLD lead the recovery with total activity down …read more

Far North bucks the regional building approvals trend

Original regional building approval data for October released yesterday by the ABS allows us to update our Conus Trend series for the Queensland SA4 regions as well as our local Local Government Areas. While approvals were up 14.3% y/y across the nation in Oct, Queensland saw a 9.3% decline on …read more

Labour Account Sept 2020 shows average income surge

Tthe ABS have just released the Sept 2020 quarter Labour Account data series which provides a wealth of information. One thing it allows us to do is take a  look at incomes across various industry sectors and how they have changed in the past 12 months. The data provides us, …read more

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