Slight uptick in Trend Jobseekers in Cairns suggest unemployment rate likely to be revised higher

The latest Dept of Social services data for jobseekers in the Cairns and Townsville regions allows us to update our Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend Jobseeker data set. This shows a small uptick in the total number of Jobseekers in both regions. Cairns now sits at 8,896 (up from an upwardly …read more

Sharp drop in Cairns unemployment rate as participation falls

The release by the ABS of the original December regional labour force data allows us to update our own Conus/CBC Staff Selection Employment Trend series for the SA4 regions in QLD. What we see, once again, is the regions doing better than Greater Brisbane. With the ABS Trend unemployment rate …read more

Inflation stays as expected

Dec quarter inflation came in this morning pretty much as people were expecting…that is, weak. CPI rose just 0.5% for the quarter which sees the annual rate drop to 1.8% (from 1.9% previously). The more closely watched measures (at least by the RBA) of core inflation, the trimmed mean and …read more

Unemployment rate falls again; and better news for Queensland

Today’s Labour Force data for Dec from the ABS once again shows the headline, seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropping (to 5.0% from 5.1%) on the back of a further lift in employment and a slight dip in Participation. The nation added 21,600 to those employed, although they were all in …read more

Pete talking part-time work in Cairns

Pete spoke to John MacKenzie on radio 4CA this morning about the growth in part-time work in Cairns, on the back of an article in today’s Cairns Post. You can listen to the interview below.

SALM data for the Far North

The Dept of Employment today released their Small Area Labour Market data for the September quarter. The headline data is presented as a smoothed 4 quarters average at both Local Govt Area and SA2 level. However, hidden in the release is the original, unsmoothed, data and from that we create the Conus Trend …read more

Disappointing Short Term Arrivals data for Queensland

The ABS Overseas Arrivals and Departures data for November, released this morning, shows short term arrivals to Australia growing at 4.4% y/y (seasonally adjusted). Departures (original data) are up 4.0% annually and have been growing at close to this rate for the past year. The rapid growth we have been …read more

Regional Building Approvals data confirms the collapse in Townsville

Today saw the release of the regional residential building approvals data from the ABS which allows us to update our own Conus Trend series; and what it shows is, as expected, the slowdown in the Far North continues with Townsville especially weak. With Trend approvals in Queensland falling in November …read more

Income growth at the regional level in Queensland

Last month saw the release of the Labour Account series which provided details of income growth rates for various industry sectors (see here for our post at the time). Given the various income growth rates across industry sectors and combining this with the industry employment breakdown at the regional level …read more

Jobseeker numbers in Cairns and Townsville continue to fall

The release by the Dept of Social Services of their Labour Market and Related Payments data for Nov allows us to update our Conus/CBC Staff Selection Jobseeker Trend data for Cairns and Townsville. It shows Trend jobseeker numbers in both regions have fallen in the past year; Cairns down 703 …read more

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