Category Archives: Labour market

Minimum wages and employment podcast discussion

Posted on November 9, 2020 by

Apart from Joe Biden winning the US Presidency and the Democratic Party otherwise under-performing, in my view, the major news coming out of last week’s elections in the US was Florida voting to increase its minimum wage to $15/hour by … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market, Macroeconomy | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Chat with Joe Branigan on LNP’s New Bradfield Scheme and 5% jobless target and Labor’s $600M Council cash splash

Posted on October 21, 2020 by

Yesterday afternoon I caught up with my good friend and former Treasury colleague Joe Branigan to chat about the upcoming Queensland election, and you can listen to our wide-ranging conversation via the player/link below. Among other issues, we chatted about … Continue reading →

Posted in Infrastructure, Labour market, Macroeconomy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Qld has highest unemployment rate, but we’ve actually coped with COVID-shock better than most states

Posted on October 16, 2020 by

Queensland once again has the highest unemployment rate in Australia (7.7% compared with a national average of 6.9%), as revealed by the September Labour Force Survey data released by the ABS yesterday, but we need to be careful in jumping … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market, Macroeconomy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Deep recession to be quantified in June qtr National Accounts released tomorrow

Posted on September 1, 2020 by

Age/SMH Senior Economics Correspondent Shane Wright has written a great summary of the business indicators data released yesterday by the ABS: An economy like 2016 as sales and wages collapse. The business indicators data are pieces of the jigsaw puzzle … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market, Macroeconomy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Mining & Ag have partly shielded several Qld regions from COVID shock

Posted on August 28, 2020 by

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Labour market, Mining, Toowoomba | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Thoughts on the New Normal – latest podcast episode

Posted on August 27, 2020 by

Regarding a new normal in a post-COVID world, in the June 2020 issue of Monocle magazine, the Editor Tyler Brule wrote: We don’t want a heavy handed ‘new normal.’ We want people to act responsibly but we also want families, … Continue reading →

Posted in Health, IR, Labour market, Macroeconomy, Retail trade, Tourism, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Gold Coast and Inner Brisbane the worst affected Qld regions in employment terms

Posted on August 26, 2020 by

According to the latest regional payroll jobs data released by the ABS today, in early August employment on the Gold Coast was still 6% below the level it was mid-March, before all the major COVID-related restrictions began (see chart below). … Continue reading →

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

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

Posted on July 22, 2020 by

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

Premier’s border decision helps, but it’s still early days in any recovery from virus recession

Posted on July 1, 2020 by

The Queensland Premier’s decision to reopen the border to non-Victorian interstate travellers and to bring forward the relaxation of a range of restrictions will no doubt provide a bit of a boost to the economy (e.g. the Courier-Mail is reporting … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market, Macroeconomy, Queensland Government, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Aussie unemployment & underemployment video

Posted on June 27, 2020 by

In my latest video, I expand on my post from last Monday True Queensland unemployment rate around 12% and discuss just how bad the Australian labour market is at the moment. Thanks to those readers who commented on the post … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market, Macroeconomy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments