Trend employment in Cairns not being impacted by the tourism lock-out….yet

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 closer look at what’s happened in the Cairns labour market since COVID

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

Zero hours and declining participation drive ‘effective unemployment rate’ higher

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

People drop out of labour force as lock-downs bite

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

Average Incomes rise strongly in Cairns in the year to June 2021

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

Employment projections show Regional QLD doing well over next 5 years

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

Employment lifts in Cairns in July as the unemployment rate remains at 5.0%

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

Employment edges higher in July despite lockdowns

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

Cairns Trend employment remains unchanged while Townsville adds another 900

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

More strong jobs data; QLD unemployment rate now at its lowest since Apr 2009

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

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