The ABS release of original regional labour force data today allows us to update the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Regional Employment series. This shows us that, despite the tourism slowdown caused by the NSW, Victoria and ACT lockdowns (and the resultant lock-out for the Cairns tourism sector), Trend employment in Cairns …read more
A lot has changed in Australia’s labour market since the COVID pandemic struck. Lockdowns, lock-outs, payroll support, increased JobSeeker payments and workers working zero hours have all had profound impacts, to the point where the headline unemployment rate (now the seasonally adjusted series since the ABS had to suspend the …read more
We have previously discussed the idea of effective unemployment rates which take into account the distorting effects of workers on zero hours and moves in participation rates on headline unemployment rates (see here for one of our earlier explainers). When we crunch today’s labour force numbers for August we see …read more
The August Labour Force data released by the ASBS this morning showed a thumping 146,300 decline in employment (market expectations had been closer to a drop of 100,000) but a seemingly paradoxical drop in the headline unemployment rate to 4.5%. But don’t be mislead; these are bad numbers and the …read more
The ABS have just released the June 2021 quarter Labour Account data series which provides a wealth of information. One thing it allows us to do is take a look at incomes across various industry sectors and how they have changed in the past 12 months. The data provides us, for …read more
The National Skills Commission has released their employment projections out to November 2025 (based on ABS industry employment data to Nov 2020). These provide us with a look at what the Commission are expecting in terms of employment growth and which industry sectors are likely to see what growth. The …read more
This month again sees employment improving in Cairns. Participation improved slightly (+0.3 ppts) and the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend unemployment rate is now at 5.0%, which is a little above the Queensland average of 5.2%. Annual Trend employment growth has turned positive (+3.2%) although this is still relatively weak when …read more
Against the expectations of many employment lifted slightly in July, up by 2,200 (there was at least one notable exception to the those expecting a fall; Justin Smirk at Westpac was calling for a lift in employment and his note is well worth reading for insight into why today’s numbers …read more
The ABS original regional Labour Force data for June allows us to update our own Conus/CBC Staff Selection Regional Employment Trend & s.a. series. This shows that the solid growth in employment seen across the State (see here for details) last week is reflected in both Greater Brisbane and the …read more
The June labour market survey data from the ABS released this morning has (once again) exceeded market expectations; although it’s not all great news. Employment lifted by 29,100 in the month and is now up 6.3% from a year ago (or 777,900 more people employed than at this stage last …read more