Regional Jobs; more good news for the North

Today we saw the release of the ABS regional jobs unadjusted data for July. As always, we have to consider the Conus Trend data to make much sense of this highly volatile data-set; and what that shows us is a continuing good-news story in the North. Trend employment in the …read more

Pete discussing the new GBR Environmental-Economic accounts

Pete spoke to Kier Shorey on ABC Far North this morning about yesterday’s release of the experimental Environmental-Economic accounts for the Great Barrier Reef (see our commentary here). You can listen below.

Experimental Environmental-Economic Accounts for the Great Barrier Reef; a welcome addition

The ABS have today produced the first edition of a new data set, the Experimental Environmental-Economic Accounts for the Great Barrier Reef (full details here). There’s a lot of information here, sourced from a wide variety of sources, but some highlights include: Marine Condition indicators which show Coral condition at 44 …read more

Queensland notches up another positive jobs report

The ABS release of Labour Force data for July shows the Trend unemployment rate in Queensland stable at 6.3% having added 8,300 employed for the month (+27,000 seasonally adjusted) after June was also revised slightly higher. This is now the 9th straight month of Trend increases and pushes total employment …read more

No sign of improvement in Far North Building Approvals

This morning we saw the release of the ABS original regional building approvals data for June. As always, we need to consider this volatile series in light of the Conus Trend to make much sense of it. In the SA4 regions of Cairns and Townsville there was little to get …read more

Exports lead as QLD economy grows 3.9% y/y, 2.5% ann

Today saw the release by the Queensland Treasury of their estimates for Gross State Product for the first quarter of 2017. The ABS produce state Final Demand data on a quarterly basis (although this ignores net exports) but Gross State Product numbers only annually at the end of each financial …read more

The changing face of QLD employment over the decades

In a previous post (see here) we called on the ABS to take a look at providing better regional labour force data, if only at a Greater Brisbane and Rest of Queensland level. The following brief analysis of our own Conus Trend data shows what a difference such data can …read more

Cost of Living Indexes show employees doing best

Today’s Cost of Living Indexes for the second quarter show that it continues to be those in employment who are being impacted by “cost of living pressures” the least; perhaps just as well given the slow pace of wages growth although worth noting that wages growth in the first quarter …read more

Building Approvals data shows the tide is turning in QLD

Today’s ABS data on residential building approvals in June confirms the slow turnaround in the sector in Queensland. For the 6th consecutive month we see Trend approvals up for the month and the year-on-year decline now at its slowest rate since Sept 2016. On the Trend basis total approvals in …read more

Time for ABS to step up with better data for the regions

For years we have been bemoaning the lack of quality data provided by the ABS at a regional (SA4) level. In particular the labour market data has been a major gripe of ours. How can we expect State and Local Governments to be making sensible policy decisions when they are …read more

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