Cairns trend unemployment rate; the confusion still reigns

Just after Christmas The Cairns Post ran an article highlighting the differences between our own Conus Trend and that calculated by Rick Carr at Herron Todd White, when we both came up with some significantly different numbers for the Nov data (see my post on the article here). Today sees …read more

Regional jobs data is poor for Cairns

The release by the ABS of the unadjusted regional labour force data today has, once again, highlighted the extreme volatility of this series. The original data suggests that 3,400 fewer people were in work in Cairns in Dec than in Nov (despite a supposed increase of 500 jobs the previous …read more

Regional jobs data; Conus and HTW

While we were away over the Christmas break The Cairns Post ran a piece (see below) highlighting the differences between our own Conus Trend labour force data for the regions and the Trend data provided by Rick Carr from Herron Todd White. In actual fact Rick’s data and ours haven’t …read more

Small Area Labour Market data for Sept quarter

While we were overseas for the Christmas break the Dept of Employment released their Sept Small Area Labour Market (SALM) data, which we have only now seen. The SALM estimates are created using data from Centrelink data of people in receipt of Newstart and Youth Allowance by postcode, the ABS …read more

Regional building approvals a mixed bag

Regional building approvals data for Nov has turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag. The unadjusted data from the ABS shows that Cairns (including Douglas) saw a total of just 42 approvals (half of the total for Oct), the Cassowary Coast saw a sharp uptick to 14 …read more

Cairns unemployment rate falls but jobs being lost

The ABS November regional labour force data today confirms a worrying trend for the Cairns region. As we noted last month (see here), the region is failing to see any jobs growth and the fall in the unemployment rate is all due to an ongoing collapse in the Participation Rate. …read more

Building Approvals rally continues in Cairns

The strong bounce in national building approvals noted last week (which was not replicated in QLD) appears to have been a feature in Cairns during October. ABS data released this morning show total unadjusted approvals in Cairns and Douglas were 84; Townsville 168 and Cassowary Coast just 4. As always, …read more

Open letter to Cairns from Tony Fung re Aquis

I have just received the following email as an “Open Letter to the Cairns Community” from Tony Fung. The letter talks about his “commitment to one day deliver AQUIS for Cairns” (my emphasis) and notes that the delays caused in the probity investigation for the Reef Casino takeover will result …read more

Cairns jobs worsen while Townsville sees improvement

NOTE regarding the ABS revisions to Sept and their impact on Conus Trend figures. The revisions to the ABS data for Sept and the preceding months, announced a few days ago and discussed here, have inevitably had an impact on the Conus Trend data for Sept. It is therefore worth …read more

Building Approvals hold up in FNQ

Despite the rather disappointing QLD Building Approvals data reported on last week (see here), the regional data released this morning shows that things are holding up OK in the Far North. The ABS produce raw (unadjusted) data for the Local Government Areas and this shows Cairns (incl Port Douglas) at …read more

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