Category Archives: Cairns

Remarkable turnarounds for Townsville, Mackay, and Cairns

In my upcoming Brisbane Club presentation on Tuesday, one chart I’ll show is of selected Queensland regional unemployment rates, highlighting how the economic recovery generally and a booming mining sector have translated into some extraordinarily low unemployment rates in some … Continue reading

Posted in Cairns, Labour market, Mackay, Townsville | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Qld economy should cope better than NSW and Vic. economies, but our tourism regions will suffer badly

The ongoing economic fallout of the Delta outbreak continued this week, regardless of the statistical anomaly, due to people leaving the workforce, that was the reported 4.6% national unemployment rate for July. Queensland had the highest unemployment rate (5.2%) among … Continue reading

Posted in Cairns, Macroeconomy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Cairns economy post-JobKeeper – conversation with Pete Faulkner of Conus

Queenslanders are waiting anxiously for the state government’s COVID media conference this morning, to learn what’s happening with the infection of the doctor at the PA Hospital. Let’s hope our authorities take into account the fact the vaccine is being … Continue reading

Posted in Cairns, Macroeconomy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Qld Premier highlights my JobKeeper comments in Instagram post

Thanks to John McCarthy for yesterday’s InQld story picking up my comments in yesterday’s QEW post regarding the need for the federal government to extend JobKeeper in some form for tourism-dependent businesses. John’s story has been noticed and shared by … Continue reading

Posted in Cairns, Macroeconomy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Post-JobKeeper viability a concern of many Qld businesses

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland (CCIQ) has released its CCIQ Pulse Survey of Business Conditions for December quarter 2020, and it shows a continuation of the recovery in the second half of 2020 in business conditions and confidence … Continue reading

Posted in Cairns, Macroeconomy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Qld Premier deserves some criticism, but she’s right to highlight needs of struggling tourism-dependent businesses

The NSW Premier, Sky Australia hosts, and other commentators have been quick to criticise Queensland Premier Palaszczuk over her call for the federal government to extend JobKeeper beyond the end of March for struggling tourism-dependent businesses, particularly those in Cairns … Continue reading

Posted in Cairns, North Queensland, Queensland Government, Tourism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Qld’s regional economies & COVID-19 – video chat with Pete Faulkner

Earlier today I chatted with Pete Faulkner from Far-North-Queensland-based Conus Business Consultancy Services regarding how Queensland’s regional economies have been impacted by COVID-19. Check out the recording of our Zoom conversation below. You can download the slides we chatted about … Continue reading

Posted in Brisbane, Cairns, Labour market, Mackay, Macroeconomy, Migration, Mining, North Queensland, Population, Tourism, Townsville, Uncategorized, Wide Bay-Burnett | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Economic impact of COVID-19 & policy responses webinar for QUT Centre for Data Science

The video recording of a webinar on the economic impact of COVID-19 I participated in last Friday is now available. The other panellists were Danielle Wood from the Grattan Institute, Griffith Professor Tony Makin, and QUT Professor Pascalis Raimondos. My … Continue reading

Posted in Cairns, Gold Coast, Labour market, Macroeconomy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

State and regional unemployment rates in this time of COVID-19 with Pete Faulkner

Mission Beach-based economist Pete Faulkner from Conus Consulting has been in the news recently with his estimates of the massive adverse impacts that measures to combat coronavirus are having on Queensland’s regional economies (e.g. see the InQueensland report Jobless numbers … Continue reading

Posted in Cairns, Gold Coast, Labour market, Macroeconomy, North Queensland, Townsville, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Catch up with CCIQ Chief Economist on dreadful business conditions & huge budget deficits

Yesterday afternoon I caught up with CCIQ Chief Economist Dr Marcus Smith for a phone interview on the coronavirus-induced recession/mini-depression, and you can listen to the recording here: Highlights include: 3:50 – discussion of forecasts for double-digit unemployment rates in … Continue reading

Posted in Budget, Cairns, Gold Coast, Macroeconomy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments