Monthly Archives: July 2013

Growth in cost of living highest for pensioners

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Gene Tunny

Pete Faulkner has a great post today (Cost of living pressures?) commenting on the new ABS Living Cost Indexes data, some of which I’ve charted above. Pete notes: Today’s release of the Living Cost Indexes by the ABS should hopefully end … Continue reading →

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Still waiting for building industry recovery

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Gene Tunny

The Queensland building industry will continue to experience lean times over coming months with building approvals remaining significantly lower than they were before the financial crisis (see chart below based on today’s latest ABS data). While seasonally adjusted building approvals … Continue reading →

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Unemployment in outer Brisbane

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Gene Tunny

Katherine Feeney has a great article on the Brisbane Times website this morning: Unemployment hitting Brisbane’s outer suburbs hardest. It contains some commentary from me on Brisbane’s labour market that I gave to Katherine when she interviewed me yesterday, in response … Continue reading →

Posted in Brisbane, Labour market | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Tourism recovering nicely on Gold Coast, not so elsewhere

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Gene Tunny

Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ) released some Regional Snapshots for the year ended 2013 yesterday, and they show a good result for the Gold Coast (see Gold Coast Regional Snapshot), with total visitors up 9%, but less inspiring and somewhat … Continue reading →

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Which suburbs of Brisbane had the largest increases in unemployment?

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Gene Tunny

After looking at the new regional unemployment data for June 2013 last week, I wondered about the distribution of job losses across the Brisbane metropolitan area (see my previous post Largest unemployment rate increases over 2012-13 in metro Brisbane and … Continue reading →

Posted in Brisbane, Labour market | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Largest unemployment rate increases over 2012-13 in metro Brisbane and Central Qld

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Gene Tunny

I’ve mapped the changes in regional unemployment rates over 2012-13 (based on Queensland Treasury’s briefing on yesterday’s ABS data) in the maps below. The largest increases in the unemployment rate are in metropolitan Brisbane, related in part to public service … Continue reading →

Posted in Brisbane, Labour market, Mackay, Mining | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Solar subsidy creates suburban “eyesore” on Gold Coast

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Gene Tunny

In describing how government policies can have strange effects, economic textbooks often refer to the window tax that applied in Britain in France in the 18th and 19th centuries. This tax resulted in a number of households bricking up windows … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Environment, Gold Coast | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

OECD forecasts Australian unemployment rate to remain relatively low

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Gene Tunny

The OECD has released its Employment Outlook 2013, which contains a forecast of a stable, relatively low unemployment rate for Australia at 5.5 per cent and a grim forecast of persistent, high unemployment in the Euro area of over 12 … Continue reading →

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Ipswich will play important role in eventual recovery of Qld building industry

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Gene Tunny

With Springfield continuing to grow and a new master-planned community being developed at Ripley Valley, Ipswich will play an important role in the eventual recovery of Queensland’s building industry from its current weak condition. Indeed, residential land data published today … Continue reading →

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Tourism sector needs IR reform

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Gene Tunny

You may have noticed how difficult it has become to get a single night’s accommodation during weekends in Australia, particularly via Wotif. And in yesterday’s Sunday Mail I noticed a large advertisement for two night weekend packages by Rydges, and … Continue reading →

Posted in IR, Tourism | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments