Pete talking TNQ tourism numbers on ABC Far North & 4CA

Kier Shorey at ABC Far North, and John MacKenzie from 4CA, both spoke to Pete this morning about yesterday’s International Visitor Survey and what it held for TNQ. You can listen below, and read yesterday’s analysis on the IVS here. Yesterday also saw the GDP release and, as usual, this …read more

International tourism grows but QLD and TNQ are both falling behind

Today’s release by TRA of the International Visitor Survey for March 2017 (available here) shows international visitors up by 9.2% y/y with expenditure up 8.1%. Numbers to Queensland were also up strongly (+6.8%), although expenditure rose just 2.6% y/y. However, as a result the Sunshine State’s share of the international …read more

Regional Building Approvals offer no joy to the North

Today sees the release of the April regional Building Approvals data from the ABS. As always we focus on the Conus Trend data series rather than the highly volatile original series as presented by the ABS. Looking at the SA4 level first, we see Cairns approvals stable at a Trend …read more

The Participation Puzzle; the impact of demographic changes

Many commentators have written about movements in the Participation Rate (PR) and the impact this can have on unemployment rates (one such recent example from Nick Behrens at QEAS). The discussion is certainly a valid one, but in this post we want to try and dig a little deeper into what …read more

Pete on radio 4CA this morning talking regional jobs and “lifestylepreneurs”

Pete spoke to John MacKenzie on radio 4CA this morning about jobs in Cairns. They also touched on a presentation in Cairns this morning from well-known commentator Bernard Salt in which he highlighted Cairns opportunities in embracing the growing trend for what he calls “lifestylepreneurs”. I’ll be posting in more …read more

Regional Jobs shows Cairns slightly weaker; Townsville further improved

Today’s ABS regional labour force data for April needs to be looked at through the lens of the Conus Trend to make any real sense. What the data shows us is Cairns slightly weaker while Townsville continues its trend of improvements (from a low base). The Conus Trend unemployment rate …read more

Pete on radio 4CA this morning talking about our submission to the Productivity Commission’s Transitioning Regional Economies report

Pete was on radio 4CA this morning with John MacKenzie talking about his submission to the Productivity Commission’s Transitioning Regional Economies report (you can download the full submission from the PC website here). You can listen to the interview below.

Regional Building Approvals improve slightly in the North

Today saw the release of the March regional building approvals data from the ABS at both SA4 and LGA level. Following the (very) modest improvement in the Trend data at a state level last week (see here for details) we have seen a similar story emerge in the Far North. …read more

Media still pushing old news about unemployment in Cairns

A piece in today’s Australian (read it here) perpetuates the old news that youth unemployment in Cairns is running at crisis levels. In this case the article quotes Cairns youth unemployment rate at 27.5%. As regular readers will know, this figure would appear to be the “official” 12 month moving …read more

Little joy for the North in the Regional Building Approvals data

We’ve only now had time to crunch the numbers for the February regional building approvals data (released while we were on holiday a few weeks ago), but it doesn’t provide any joy for the North. Considering the SA4 regional data first, the Conus Trend series for Cairns shows a slight …read more

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