Regional jobs data shows regional QLD employment growth at fastest pace in a decade

The ABS released their original, unadjusted regional labour force data for Sept this morning. We need to consider the Conus Trend series to make much sense of this highly volatile data series. When we consider the split between the Greater Brisbane and Rest of Queensland areas we see that the …read more

Beware the employment data from the Census?

Yesterday saw the release of the second tranche of Census 2016 data part of which included information relating to employment. However, we would suggest that we need to be careful when reading too much into the Census data as it relates to employment. Employment is one of the few indicators …read more

Building Approvals jump in the Far North

The ABS released their (original, unadjusted) residential building approvals at the SA4 and LGA level this morning; and they reveal good news for the Far North. As always, this highly volatile data set needs to be seen through the lens of the Conus Trend to make any real sense of …read more

More bad news for TNQ in the National Visitor Survey

The June quarter National Visitor Survey from Tourism Research Australia was released this morning (see here for full details), and it confirms the deteriorating story for the region we’ve been discussing for some time (see commentary from last quarter). Across the nation domestic overnight visits rose 5.2% y/y and were …read more

Cairns Conus Trend “Job Seeker” rate hits lowest in almost 3 years

Regular readers will be well aware that there are various ways to look at the labour market; the standard “unemployment rate” being just one of them. Another, less well known measure, is provided by way of the Dept of Social Services data in their monthly payment recipients release (available here). …read more

Regional Building Approvals; no joy for the North

The release of the regional building approvals data by the ABS today allows us to update our Conus Trend series for the SA4 and Local Govt Areas. What we find is a story of slightly weaker, but generally stable, approvals in the North. The Cairns SA4 region sees Trend approvals …read more

Chinese visitors to TNQ fall for first time in almost eight years

Further data from TRA for the TNQ region highlights the concern we flagged earlier today. Over the past year the once-booming Chinese sector of the market has seen a decline in the region of 1.2%. Chinese visitors to TNQ fell from 216,726 in the year to June 2016 to 214,082 …read more

International Visitor growth leaves Queensland behind

Today sees the release of the June quarter International Visitor Survey from Tourism Research Australia (full report available here); and although visitor numbers are up strongly it’s not a happy story for Queensland. Visitor numbers to Australia show a 8.7% y/y increase to almost 7.9 million (another new record high). …read more

Pete on radio 4CA this morning talking jobs and the economy in Cairns

Pete spoke to John MacKenzie on radio 4CA this morning about last week’s regional jobs data (see details here) and the impact the improving labour market was having on the broader Cairns economy. You can listen to the segment below.  

Cairns population growth beats Townsville in past decade; but both fall behind QLD

Data released today for Estimated Resident Populations in regional areas shows the population of the Cairns SA4 region climbed 18.1% in the decade to June 30th 2016 reaching 247,762. This was somewhat faster than estimated growth in Townsville SA4 which was +16% to 235,037. However, both regions fell behind growth …read more

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