MacroBusiness had a good post the other day (Where are the job gains and losses?) based on the detailed quarterly ABS labour force data released on Thursday. MacroBusiness’s charts show very slow growth in mining employment in Queensland and a big drop in mining employment in WA over the year to May 2013. Here’s a chart based on the raw data:

Given the bad news we’ve been hearing out of the mining industry recently I wouldn’t be surprised if Queensland mining industry employment starts to decline over the remainder of the year.