Rick Carr of Herron Todd White Cairns has released the March edition of his excellent CairnsWatch report, and it contains this disturbing chart of employment in the Cairns region, which suggest a very weak economy:

Let’s hope employment in Cairns begins to stabilise and trend upwards soon, so a nasty dynamic doesn’t arise whereby people leave Cairns because of a lack of job opportunities which further adversely affects the economy. Thankfully, at least some indicators for Cairns are good, as CairnsWatch notes:

Cairns continues to experience a mixed economic recovery, with strong forward tourism and construction indicators but a relatively weak labour market.

You can check out those other indicators in the CairnsWatch report linked to above. Other recent commentary on the Cairns economy includes:

Poor jobs data throughout North QLD

Employment blues continue to play