Data for April shows those receiving JobSeeker and Youth Allowance (other) payments fell by 9.2% from March (or about 120,000 people) despite JobKeeper ending. However, there is a caveat; the eligibility for two groups of people (those with partners earning more than $2,079.50 a fortnight, and those permanent residents who …read more
Employment in April fell by 30,600, although full-time positions were up 33,800. Despite the drop in total employment a sharp dip in Participation (to 66.0) saw the headline unemployment rate drop to 5.5% (after March was revised up to 5.7%). Year-on-year comparisons will look bizarre for the next few months …read more
The number of job vacancies being advertised online has jumped again in April, up 3.3% (seasonally adjusted) since March and now more than double where they sat a year ago, and at more than 12-year highs. In Queensland the seasonally adjusted data shows a slight decline in April (down 1.3%) …read more
Agriculture is a major driver of the regional economy in the Cairns region. In the 2019-20 Financial Year the sector grew or reared over $1.1 billion of produce. The vast bulk of that comes in the form of sugar cane and bananas, which together account for about 70% of the …read more
Data released today for the 2019-20 financial year shows the Cairns region saw a very strong increase from last year in the value of agricultural production on the back of a surge in bananas. Across the nation the value of agricultural production increased just 0.4%, to $60.7 bn, with the …read more
The latest Google Mobility data (to 9th May) suggests that Cairns, in particular, has performed very strongly after the slow-down caused by ANZAC Day, Easter and a very wet period of weather a couple of weeks ago. The 7-day average mobility indicator for Cairns now sits at just 0.2% (and …read more
March data today from the ABS allows us to update our Conus Trend series for regional building approvals in Queensland and, once again, it shows approvals in the regions booming. While approvals across the nation were up 47.4% y/y (s.a.) in Queensland the rate of growth was an even more …read more
Monthly snapshot data from Tourism Research Australia (see here) shows that domestic tourism expenditures fell 13.1% in the year to Feb across Australia. However, with the notable exception of regional QLD which saw a 6.2% reduction after some very strong data in previous months, regional areas in all States saw …read more
A few days ago we posted on the December 2020 quarter’s Internal Migration data from the ABS (see here for details) and noted the high number of people moving into QLD’s regions, particularly out of Greater Melbourne and Sydney. This ABS data has only been made available since the June …read more
Data for March shows building approvals across Australia were up 17.4% m/m, for a 47.4% y/y increase. House approvals are up 62.2% for the year while units rose 28.1%. In Queensland total approvals were up 12.1% m/m but are surging 82.2% above where they were a year ago on the …read more