As shown in my post on the latest payroll jobs data from the ABS, the regions which have fared the best in Queensland since the COVID-related economic crisis began in March are Toowoomba and Central Queensland, likely due to the importance of the primary industries, agriculture and mining, and their supply chains to the economies of these regions (see chart below of top 20 out of 87 regions in Australia).

Queensland thankfully doesn’t have any regions in the bottom 20 across Australia, a sub-set which is dominated by Victorian regions for obvious reasons (see chart below).

Overall, in terms of total employment, Queensland has been more resilient than most other states and territories (see chart below), which I suspect is partly related to primary industries making a larger contribution to our economy than they do in most other states and territories.

I should note that, despite Queensland’s apparent better performance regarding jobs than the rest of Australia, Queensland had the highest unemployment rate in Australia in July according to the ABS Labour Force Survey. This would be partly related to the fact we had an unemployment rate over half a percentage point higher than the national average pre-COVID, and it also probably reflects sampling error in the ABS Labour Force Survey. Right now, it’s pretty clear Victoria is the worst performing economy in Australia.