I agree with CommSec that Queensland is in the middle of the pack in terms of economic performance among the States, but I disagree with their observation in the State of the States report that “the jobless rate remains historically high.” While there has clearly been a slowdown in the labour market, the unemployment rate is nowhere near historical highs, as a quick check of historical ABS data shows:
My recent posts on the state of the Queensland labour market include:
Public sector hiring freeze continues
Disappointing vacancies data support Treasury’s very low employment growth forecast for 2012-13
Queensland Economy Watch 
I can’t see how our unemployment rate is “historically high” either. Unless history begins 10 years ago. They do mention QLD unemployment being 14.2% above it’s decade level average so I take it that this is what they are referring to. But if that’s the context that they are framing the result in, they probably should have made it clearer.
Yes, they should have been clearer. Thanks for the comment.