Conus and HTW Trend unemployment rates converge

Following previous posts and media comment about the seemingly wide divergence between Herron Todd White’s and our own Trend unemployment rates for the Cairns region (see here) it is interesting to note that they have almost converged for the latest Feb data. Yesterday saw HTW produce their Cairns Watch (available …read more

Cassowary Coast estimated population still at a virtual standstill

Today saw the release of the annual Regional Population Estimates from the ABS. The ABS produce these numbers at both Local Government, SA2 and State Electoral Division level. The results show the estimated CCRC resident population in 2014 at 28,705 which is a 0.1% increase over 2013. Since 2011 the estimated population has increased by just 0.2% …read more

Local area unemployment data for 4th quarter shows weakness

The Dept of Employment released their December quarter Small Area Labour Market (SALM) data today. The SALM estimates are created using data from Centrelink data of people in receipt of Newstart and Youth Allowance by postcode, the ABS regional labour market data at SA4 level and the Census labour force data …read more

Regional Building Approvals improve in the Far North

After the stellar performance of the January Building Approvals data in QLD (see commentary here) last week it is pleasing to see the improving trend reflected in the regional data for the Far North released by the ABS today. The raw unadjusted data shows approvals in Cairns at 60 (63 when we …read more

Valuer-General’s 2015 Report on land values

The 2015 Property Market Movement Report from the Valuer-General shows residential land values in Cairns have increased by an average 12.9%, the Cassowary Coast sees values slip by 3.9% while Townsville remained static. The land values created by the Report are used by Councils in the determination of rates payable. In Cairns …read more

HTW revise down Cairns unemployment rate in Dec but still have the Trend heading up

Today sees the release of the Herron Todd White Cairns Watch report for February. In it we see that HTW are estimating Jan Trend unemployment in Cairns at 8.6%. The headline ABS unadjusted rate was 8.1% and our own Conus Trend came in at 7.5%. As we’ve discussed previously, there …read more

Another look at Cairns Youth

Following on from our previous post (see here), we have now had time to take a look at the data to determine what has been going on with Cairns youth employment and population data. First we should acknowledge that the data-set which the ABS will be using when looking at …read more

Where are all Cairns’ young workers?

We didn’t have time to look at the youth unemployment data from the ABS on Thursday until today. The headline (and wildly volatile) un-adjusted data for January showed an increase in the unemployment rate of 15-24 year olds at 24.9% (up from 23.9% in Dec), a sharp fall in Participation …read more

Trend Unemployment rates improve but Cairns and Townsville is a “Tale of Two Cities”

Today’s ABS unadjusted regional labour force data for Jan is, as always, wildly volatile. As an example the headline unemployment rate in Mackay in Jan jumped to 10.3% (3rd highest in the state) despite being just 3.2% just 6 months ago. Clearly the Trend analysis is what we need to …read more

Regional building approvals dip

Despite some improvement in the residential building approvals in QLD (see here), today’s release by the ABS of the regional approvals for Dec shows a slight dip in the Far North council areas. The headline figures show a total of 50 approvals for Cairns (incl Douglas) and 3 for the …read more

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