In a post last month I observed that of the so-called four pillars of the Queensland economy – agriculture, construction, resources and tourism – the resources sector has been the only one with employment growth in recent years. Unfortunately, new ABS data on building approvals today suggests the construction industry isn’t likely to start generating new jobs anytime soon, with approvals appearing to stabilise at a relatively low level:
Nationally the data aren’t encouraging either, except in Victoria. The HIA’s media release has a good summary of the data:
“Today’s positive headline result, a 2.9 per cent improvement in the dwelling approvals nationally, somewhat overshadows what is a rather poor update for most jurisdictions,” said HIA Economist, Geordan Murray…
…In November 2012, total seasonally adjusted building approvals increased in only one jurisdiction, Victoria – up by 8.7 per cent. Approvals fell in South Australia (-13.8 per cent), Tasmania (-7.6 per cent), New South Wales (-4.0 per cent), Queensland (-1.5 per cent) and Western Australia (-1.0 per cent). In trend terms building approvals in November fell in both the Australian Capital Territory (-0.8 per cent) and the Northern Territory (-3.6 per cent).
Other coverage of today’s building approvals data includes:
- Apartment surge drove dwelling approvals higher in November from Macro Business; and
- Building approvals up but Qld slips again from Conus Economics Blog.
Queensland Economy Watch 