Category Archives: Labour market

Regional economic divergence – podcast chat w/ Rob Sobyra, Construction Skills Qld

I’ve reported on how the economic recovery has seen large falls in unemployment rates across Queensland, including in most regions (see Remarkable turnarounds for Townsville, Mackay, and Cairns). But I need to acknowledge that employment growth is still overwhelmingly in … Continue reading

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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

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Qld has outperformed rest of Australia this decade so far

The May Labour Force data released by the ABS yesterday confirmed Queensland has outperformed the rest of Australia over the last couple of years. My view is that this is due to a range of factors including a surge in … Continue reading

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RBA’s next move: 25, 40, or 50 basis points? Michael Knox says 50 on Economics Explored

Next Tuesday, the RBA will increase the cash rate again, but it’s uncertain by just how much. Reuters is reporting RBA to raise rates a modest 25 bps in June, some call for 40 bps, where bps stands for basis … Continue reading

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Super-high coal royalties to help address Qld hospitals crisis

As I predicted earlier this month (see John McCarthy’s 13 May InQld article), the Queensland Government will be boosting health spending in the upcoming budget to deal with the hospitals crisis, and to a large extent it’s able to do … Continue reading

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Unemployment and state budgets update

On Monday, I appeared on the 612 ABC Brisbane Radio Drive program (from 2:09:00) to chat with Kelly Higgins-Devine about how we estimate the unemployment rate, a matter of interest that day obviously due to the Opposition Leader being unable … Continue reading

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Economists needed to design virtual economy for Splash, metaverse entertainment start-up in Brisbane

Splash, a Fortitude-Valley-headquartered start-up, is looking for two economists to design a virtual economy for its online game in which players create music and perform in virtual venues. Splash’s head of People and Culture reached out to me today to … Continue reading

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Qld Economic Outlook for 2022

Prior to the omicron outbreak, I was very confident about the Queensland economic outlook for 2022. I’m still reasonably confident that the state economy will perform well over 2022, but nothing is certain of course. There’s been a bit of … Continue reading

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Sunny Coast booming | Qld must remain open for business petition

Relative to pre-COVID levels, while all Queensland regions have much higher job vacancies, it is the Sunshine Coast that is well in the lead, according to the National Skills Commission’s internet vacancies data for November 2021, published yesterday (see chart … Continue reading

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Great Resignation chat with Anthony Bersz and Louise Gibson, Remedy Resourcing

The Great Resignation is the label given to the record numbers of people leaving jobs in the US and the UK. For a variety of reasons, many people have re-evaluated their lives and careers during the pandemic. People have quit … Continue reading

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