Today the ABS will release its December 2014 labour force estimates of employment and unemployment and the figures will be important to the ongoing election debate about employment. At 6.9%, Queensland’s unemployment rate is significantly higher than the rate of 5.5% when the Government was elected. The Government will be hoping that the slight fall that was seen in Queensland’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in November continues, and wasn’t just noise in the data, and that there is meaningful employment growth. As I’ve noted in previous posts, due to factors largely out of the Government’s control, employment growth has been weak over the term of the current Government, and there has been a loss of full-time jobs according to ABS statistics. For example, see:

Employment and unemployment can both increase because labour force grows with population

Qld Govt’s new jobs target much more achievable than previous 4% unemployment rate target

The November job vacancies data released by the ABS yesterday provide a glimmer of hope for the Government, with vacancies having increased nearly 5% between August and November, although they still remain below levels of a few years ago (see chart below).