Tag Archives: jobs

Teenagers have had tough time in labour market since financial crisis

A creative reader and former colleague of mine, who goes by the nickname Toad, today sent me an interesting chart, presented below, that he has prepared on teenage labour force data for Queensland (you may need to open it in another … Continue reading

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Failure of Strong Choices now obvious – missed chance to persuade on asset sales

The Queensland Government should have directly made the case for asset sales, rather than hoping people would conclude they’re necessary after playing the choose-your-own-budget game on the Strong Choices website, a point I’ve made a few times over the last few weeks (see … Continue reading

Posted in Budget, Labour market | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Recent vacancies data suggest we shouldn’t get too excited about jobs market just yet

Tomorrow’s release of April labour force data from the ABS will hopefully confirm a recovery in the job market in Queensland, continuing the positive trend from last month (see my post from last month: Qld unemployment rate falls slightly to … Continue reading

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Qld unemployment rate falls slightly to 6.1% – rising participation a good sign

The March labour force data released today by the ABS, showing the unemployment rate falling to 5.8% from 6.1% in February, were good news for the Australian economy, as reflected in the dollar surging and one prominent commentator forecasting an … Continue reading

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Challenging labour market conditions for young Australians

Professor Jeff Borland has recently published an informative labour market snapshot on What is happening to jobs for the young? As Professor Borland notes, employment opportunities for young people have declined significantly over the last few years as employers have become … Continue reading

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CairnsWatch remains optimistic despite very weak Cairns labour market

Rick Carr of Herron Todd White Cairns has released the March edition of his excellent CairnsWatch report, and it contains this disturbing chart of employment in the Cairns region, which suggest a very weak economy: Let’s hope employment in Cairns … Continue reading

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Something for the optimists in today’s labour force data

My friend and former Treasury colleague Joe Branigan has found some good news for Queensland in today’s new labour force data. Earlier today, Joe tweeted an interesting chart (see below), showing Queensland has led Australia in the growth of hours … Continue reading

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Qld jobs market remains sluggish – unlikely trend unemployment rate fell last month

Today’s labour force data from the ABS confirmed that the jobs market remains sluggish, with Queensland’s unemployment rate at 5.9 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms. Unfortunately, the ABS data aren’t very precise for Queensland and it’s hard to have … Continue reading

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Mining employment in Qld continues to grow, but at slower rate

Employment in the Queensland mining sector still appears to be growing, although at a slower rate, according to the detailed quarterly data released today (see chart below). This suggests the concerns raised earlier in the year by some commentators over … Continue reading

Posted in Labour market, Mining | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Slowdown in Qld mining sector jobs growth, but no slump like in WA yet

MacroBusiness had a good post the other day (Where are the job gains and losses?) based on the detailed quarterly ABS labour force data released on Thursday. MacroBusiness’s charts show very slow growth in mining employment in Queensland and a … Continue reading

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