Tag Archives: abs

Qld Government likely to go into election campaign with weak economy

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Gene Tunny

New ABS data released today show a large drop in engineering construction activity – i.e. the heavy construction activity that has been largely associated with the resources sector in recent years. At the same time as this drop is occurring, … Continue reading →

Posted in Housing, Macroeconomy, Mining | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Productivity push from Qld Govt needed after living standards growth stalls

Posted on November 23, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Queensland Treasury econocrats should start investigating measures to improve our productivity performance, after ABS State Accounts data released on Friday confirmed a big slowdown in living standards growth over the last decade or so – measured, roughly I admit, by … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy, Productivity | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Any Strong Choices jobs boost will come too late to do anything about current weakness

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Gene Tunny

While there is more than the usual uncertainty about the reliability of recent jobs data from the ABS, yesterday’s awful data for Queensland, with unemployment now at 7% seasonally adjusted, can be read as confirming the economy is pretty weak … Continue reading →

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

Ipswich & rest of Western Corridor suffering disproportionately from Qld’s weak labour market

Posted on November 2, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Ipswich and other parts of the Western Corridor are suffering disproportionately from Queensland’s weak labour market, according to the most recent estimates produced by the Department of Employment which combine Centrelink and ABS data (see map below, which can be … Continue reading →

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

Residential building activity recovering nicely, but still below levels of mid-2000s

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Builders across Queensland should have noticed higher levels of residential building activity lately, although they may still be disappointed activity remains below the levels of the mid-2000s (see chart based on ABS building activity data released yesterday below). The new … Continue reading →

Posted in Housing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New businesses need to hang tough for first year – big gains come in second year

Posted on October 11, 2014 by Gene Tunny

New businesses experience their biggest productivity gains in their second year (see the chart below), after the hard work and investment of the first year have been realised, according to new research published by the ABS (see Firm Dynamics and … Continue reading →

Posted in Productivity | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

ABS funding cuts may have compromised macroeconomic management

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Given the huge revisions to recent labour force data published by the ABS data yesterday, it’s now clear that the ABS is suffering from the impacts of funding cuts in recent years (see this ABC news report), and this has … Continue reading →

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

Economic weakness hits Qld retailers

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Gene Tunny

2014 has been a challenging year for Queensland retailers, with retail turnover not growing, and actually declining by around 1% from levels seen earlier in the year (see chart below). I suspect a large part of this is due to … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy, Mining, Retail trade, Tax | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Victoria beating Qld in budget management and other policy areas

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Many years ago, as a result of the economic failures of the Cain Government in the 1980s, Victoria had a poor reputation for economic management, while Queensland had an excellent reputation. A comparison of State Budget estimates for 2014-15 (see … Continue reading →

Posted in Budget | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Qld less attractive to Southerners due to weak jobs market & growing pains

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Yesterday’s new population data from the ABS were important because they showed Queensland’s population growth falling below the national average (see chart below). Partly this is due to a very low level of interstate migration (second chart below), which I’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in Migration, Population | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment