Monthly Archives: September 2013

Low level of vacancies suggests sluggish labour market to continue in short-term

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Gene Tunny

There doesn’t appear to be any recovery in Queensland’s jobs market coming in the next few months with job vacancies remaining at relatively low levels (see the chart below based on today’s new ABS job vacancies data). Given the relatively … Continue reading →

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Higher education reform important in improving budget balance

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Gene Tunny

I’m broadly pleased with the new Federal Government’s planned reforms of the higher education system (reported in the Brisbane Times article Christopher Pyne reveals university shake-up). Policy targets are generally useless, as they are rarely achieved and are often misguided, … Continue reading →

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More on the mining slowdown

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Gene Tunny

I posted last week on how the new ABS labour force data show a slowing in the growth rate of mining employment, but no decline in employment yet, as one might have expected based on reports of job losses at … Continue reading →

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Mining employment in Qld continues to grow, but at slower rate

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Gene Tunny

Employment in the Queensland mining sector still appears to be growing, although at a slower rate, according to the detailed quarterly data released today (see chart below). This suggests the concerns raised earlier in the year by some commentators over … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market, Mining | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

New Government should reject car industry begging

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Gene Tunny

Since the late 1940s, Australia has bought itself a car industry, first through very high tariff protection that rose to around 57% by the 1980s, and then through financial assistance that, in part, replaced the benefits of tariff protection to … Continue reading →

Posted in Industry policy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Effective population numbers much higher than usual residents in central and western Qld (and Cairns)

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Gene Tunny

Some interesting data were released by the ABS today comparing the number of people counted in each local government area (LGA) on Census night compared with the number of usual residents (see chart below). The chart shows the ratio of … Continue reading →

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Qld labour market stable, not worsening

Posted on September 13, 2013 by Gene Tunny

The Queensland labour market appears stable based on yesterday’s ABS labour force data (see chart below), confirming my skepticism about the bleak forecast for the Queensland economy reported by the Brisbane Times earlier in the week (Outlook for Qld economy … Continue reading →

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Domestic tourism to Gold Coast recovering while other Qld regions struggle

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Gene Tunny

Domestic tourism figures for 2012-13 reported yesterday by Tourism and Events Queensland show that, while the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Tropical North Queensland (TNQ) are recovering, some other regions, such as the Sunshine Coast, Fraser Coast, Townsville and Whitsundays are … Continue reading →

Posted in Tourism | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Govt should explore transport demand management options before committing to costly infrastructure

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Gene Tunny

While it’s good news the Government has found a much cheaper alternative to Cross-River Rail, before committing billions of dollars to an underground rail and bus network (see this morning’s Courier-Mail report), the Government should ensure it has fully considered … Continue reading →

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Michael Porter on Cairns’s tourism cluster

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Gene Tunny

In a recent talk (Social Progress and Competitive Growth), Michael Porter illustrated the concept of an industry cluster using the Cairns tourism sector as an example (see figure below from Porter’s presentation). Basically I think it illustrates just how difficult … Continue reading →

Posted in Industry policy, Tourism | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments