Regional Trend data sees Cairns moderating as employment gains in the Regions rest largely on Healthcare

Today saw the release of the August ABS regional labour force data which allows us to update our own Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend series. With the labour data weakening at both national and state level it will come as little surprise that we see a similar picture emerging in the …read more

Employment grows again…but unemployment rate ticks higher

The August labour force data from the ABS this morning paints a mixed picture; but it’s one that it unlikely to get the RBA changing its mind anytime soon. Employment grew by 34,700 (seasonally adjusted) which was rather more than the market expectations of 15,200. However, compensating for that to …read more

Regional youth employment is a big issue in Queensland

Across the major states of Victoria, NSW and Queensland there is an interesting (and worrying) story centred on youth employment. Only in Victoria do we see Trend* employment growth in the youth cohort (15 to 24 year old) outstripping that of the state as a whole. While Victoria saw Trend …read more

Arrivals data onwards and upwards even as China slows

Short term arrivals data for July shows a 3.3% y/y increase (Trend) to a new record high just shy of 800,000. This despite the fact that arrivals from China (still the largest single market) have slowed dramatically and are up just 1.0% y/y. Even this modest rise takes Chinese arrivals …read more

Income growth in Regional Queensland underperforming Greater Brisbane

Today’s release of the June 2019 Labour Account data series 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 table below shows, for selected industries, the year-on-year changes …read more

Participation may be at record highs in Australia but it’s a different story in Queensland

There’s been plenty written about the fact that the Participation Rate across Australia is at, or near, record highs and the effect this has had on suppressing unemployment rate declines, even as employment growth remains quite strong (see here for an example from the ABC a few weeks ago). The …read more

Tourism Research Australia forecast tourism growth to slow over next 10 years

TRA have released their latest Tourism Forecasts for the next 10 years (available here). They are forecasting total visitor nights to grow at a slower pace than over the past decade; down from an average of 4.4% pa to 3.0% pa over ten years to 2029. Growth in international visitors …read more

Regional Building Approvals show it’s the regions turning QLD around

Last week we noted that the ABS Building Approvals data for July was further evidence of a (very slight) turn-around in the downward Trend in Queensland (see here for details). We noted then that Trend building approvals across the State were up for the 5th month. Today’s release by the …read more

GDP slows as expected; +1.4% y/y

The second quarter GDP data released today shows q/q growth of 0.5% (seasonally adjusted) or 1.4% for the year (down from a revised 1.7% the previous quarter. This result is broadly in-line with market expectations and comes on the back of continued weak household consumption (which sees household savings fall …read more

Queensland Gross State Product growth slows sharply…again

Today saw the release by Queensland Treasury of the State Accounts for the first quarter of 2019. As we noted last quarter, this data gets precious little coverage and yet is, in our opinion, a very useful indicator of how the State economy has been performing. While the ABS produce Gross State …read more

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