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

Jobs data makes for interesting reading

We’ve just returned from a couple of weeks in SE Asia so have some catching up to do. First thing on the agenda was the labour force data for March released last week. We saw the headline (seasonally adjusted) unemployment rate remain stable at 5.9% despite a very sharp addition …read more

Pete on ABC Far North this morning talking Job Seekers

I spoke to Kier Shorey on ABC Far North this morning about the latest Dept of Social Services data for Job Seekers in the area. You can listen below.

Job Seeker data confirms the generally better picture in Cairns

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 the Dept of Social Services in their monthly payment recipients data. Our own Conus Trend series for …read more

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