Arrivals and Departures data slightly better for QLD

The release today of the short term arrivals and departures data from the ABS for March shows international arrivals to Australia moving ahead at a healthy lick…up 9.0% from a year ago and up 6.9% for the past 12 months totalled. Residents leaving for short term breaks are also up …read more

Building Approvals move ahead. QLD strong.

Data for residential building approvals in March show the total (seasonally adjusted) across Australia was up 2.6% m/m and 14.5% up for the year. This is a traditionally volatile series (because of the impact that lumpy apartment approvals can have) so we much prefer the Trend series. Here we see …read more

Softer jobs growth sees unemployment rate static. Hours worked suggests the froth is coming off.

The March Labour Force data released this morning by the ABS showed seasonally adjusted employment was up just 4,900 (expectations had centred around +20,000) with a large revision to Feb data seeing all of those month’s gains wiped out. Over the course of the year employment is up 367,00 which …read more

Chinese visitors grow strongly but let’s take a deep breath

Yesterday saw the ABS release short term arrivals and departures data for the month of Feb. Following the release we read plenty of, frankly breathless, commentary about the strength of the Chinese visitor data…most usually when people referred to the highly volatile original, non-adjusted data. When looking at data for …read more

Where have QLD’s new Public Sectors jobs been seen?

The release of the Public Sector employment data for the Dec 2017 quarter allows us to take a look at which regions have seen the greatest increases this year, and since the ALP came to power in 2015. What we see, when considering Full-time equivalents (FTE), is an increase of …read more

QLD’s ALP Govt will not meet their own fiscal principle during this term

There’s plenty of coverage this morning in the papers about the delayed release of the QLD Quarterly Work Force Profile for the Dec 2017 quarter (available here) which provides data on the size of the QLD Public Sector employment. If we first consider the Headcount data…. When Campbell Newman’s LNP …read more

Regional Building Approvals data shows Trend improving in the Far North

Last week we saw the ABS release of building approvals data for February demonstrate that (on a Trend basis) Queensland was still doing somewhat better than the nation with approvals growth of 6.9% y/y versus 5.5% for Australia as a whole. This week the regional data shows us that the Far …read more

Regional employment data shows Cairns and Townsville almost static; Healthcare is the big growth industry

Today saw the release of the Feb monthly Regional Labour Force and the quarterly regional Industry employment data. Both data-sets are best seen through the lens of the Conus Trend series, so we shall start with the monthly data. Employment growth across QLD remains strong at 4.7% y/y (see here …read more

Domestic Tourism in TNQ; fewer visitors but they’re staying longer and spending more

Today’s release of the National Visitor Survey from Tourism Research Australia (available here) is something of a mixed bag for TNQ. While overnight domestic visitor numbers across Australia rose by 7.1% for the year to Dec 2017, they fell by 4.2% to Tropical North QLD. However, with an increase in …read more

Youth unemployment and Brotherhood of St Laurence

The Brotherhood of St Laurence has released a report looking at the issue of high youth unemployment rates across the country (report here) The report paints a dismal picture of high levels of youth unemployment across the nation, although they use a simple 12 month moving average of the original …read more

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