Thursday 8 October 2009

Unemployment rate confirms FNQ as highest in country

Queensland now has the highest unemployment rate in Australia.

The ABC reports that the jobless rate in Queensland has risen from 5.5% to 6.3%, only 600 jobs were created last month.

"There are now 142,000 reasons why every member of this Government is utterly determined to provide support to the Queensland economy because that's the number of people in Queensland who are on the unemployment queue and that's the challenge before us," Treasurer Andrew Fraser told State Parliament.

A LGAQ-commissioned report says unemployment in Far North Queensland is the highest in Australia at 11.8%, with Wide Bay-Burnett at 7.7%. In Cairns, 8.63% of the 158,000 population is without a job.

However, only 3% of Central Highlands population, around the Emerald region, is unemployed.

13 comments:

Clifton Ratbags Rule said...

And what is our federal member, Jim "What Me Worry" Turnour doing?

Got an email from his office today. It says:

"We all need a bit of de‘stress'ing with news this past month that unemployment hit 12.5% in Cairns - well above the state & national averages. So congratulations to WorkLink who put on an inspirational lunch yesterday as part of ‘National Stress Less Day'. The guest speaker was Jonathon Welch, founder of the Choir of Hard Knocks, and one of the things he spoke about was the need for a bottom-up approach to community problem solving."


Next he'll be getting in swamis, and tarot card readers, in their search for a "job solution".

And note the part Turnour thought important: "the need for a bottom-up approach". This means - "dont expect the federal government to do anything to help Cairns, we're on our own".

Thanks to Howdy Doody for doing his political best. (sarcasm off).

Ex - Labor Voter said...

Wow..that is alarming. Considering that Cairns greater region is represented by no less than 6 Labor politicians, it is totally unacceptable.

They have taken their collective eye off the ball and have no one else to blame but their lack of forceful advocacy for this region.

The Labor State government has been in power for the best part of 20 years and what have they got to show for it other than closures and deteriorating service delivery.

The State has been mismanaged to the point that it is now showing in the unemployment stats.

It is amazing really that the Coalition Government during their extended term in office left infrastructure everywhere whereas the Goss/Beattie/Bligh Governments were/is busy selling off the infrastructure that is making the State good money to help pay off Labor debt.

What has Rudd the 'Dud' done for this region other than the 'cash splash'?

What has Jim 'Turncoat' Turnour done for Cairns other than adding to Climate change with his hot air?

It's time for new brooms.

nocturnal congress said...

This region is still one of the fastest growing in terms of population. Thus, we have new arrivals pouring into Cairns, fuelling the unemployment figures.
What do you want the politicians to do? Stand on the road and stop people coming here??? Indicendally, the figure would be much higher because many people over the age of 55, especially women, just dont register as unemployed.

Noj Nedlaw said...

Well, Jim Turnour was in the Queensland Parliament today for the Bill re the Barrier Reef. Our Jason gushed in his enthusiasm

"Mr Speaker, I join you in welcoming my friend and colleague the member for Leichhardt to the chamber today. It is so gratifying to be able to work cooperatively with a federal member for a change, particularly in the area of health. It is a breath of fresh air. "

What a duo; what a class act!

Nicky J said...

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Thornton On Spence said...

Jim Turnour is a disgrace. Hosting nights at the heavily tax payer subsidised Taipans does not provide the opportunity to understand what is the problem with unemployment in Cairns. He like Kevin Rudd believes that holding meetings with ex Trade Union Representatives will provide lots of ideas that will line the pockets of the party faithful but will deliver absolutely zilch. I actually find Mr Turnour offensive in that he takes the paycheck and in return sends out a Newsletter that tells us nothing other than he's had some nice lunches and evenings watching sport.
Do you know Alan Blake Jim?

Oliver of Redlynch said...

What are the major industries in Cairns? Tourism and Property development (due to the population influx). The GFC has hit this badly, and now the Australain recovery with the strong Australian dollar is destroying tourism and any export businesses we may have (the change against the UK pound means I'm personally earning 30% less than this time last year causing me to put off expansion, investment and taking on an apprentice). The seeds to Cairns economic disaster were sown a long time ago with significant under-investment in infrastructure. We don't have a decent broadband, the university didn't build a science park, so we don't have any modern high-tech high value industry alternatives. They didn't listen to us then, they are not listening now.

Thaddeus said...

Wonder how many people are planning on migrating here this Christmas? Twenty thousand? Fifty thousand? Yawn.

KitchenSlut said...

Congress, registering as unemployed with Centrelink has NOTHING to do with the way the ABS compiles the unemployment statistics. This is done by a survey of 30,000 households by the ABS with an eighth of the sample replaced each month. Criticism and alternative measures can be found at Henry Thornton.

Blaming new arrivals for high unemployment sounds like the old Joh Bjelke Peterson line that it was all those southerners craving our lifestyle that caused higher unemployment in Qld. Net migration into Australia is at record levels in 2009. I suspect the high net migration inflows to Cairns of recent years have evaporated? Anecdotal reports on vacancy rates seem to support this.

KS posted back in March on a new index of employment vulnerability where you can generate a ranking of vulnerability by suburb. Cairns was generally skewed to higher risk categories compared to other regions.

nocturnal congress said...

Nice to know that KitchenSlut. The number of people registered as unemployed and collecting benefits are not counted for statistical purposes as "unemployed". Instead we use an ABS survey. I wonder just how accurate it is????

KitchenSlut said...

Congress, they ARE included for statistical purposes as unemployed if they fit within the ABS deiinitions, but NOT included specifically via their Centrelink registration. Any problem is with the definitions not the statistical procedure.

It would be more inappropriate to use Centrelink registrations which would confuse the purpose of a social saftey net with a wider policy analysis of unemployment which should include participation rates, hours worked etc.

There is no 'accurate' number for unemployment if you seek a specific figure and if you do are deluded as to its significance and the number would be pointless anyway .......

KitchenSlut said...

Detailed September regional data for unemployment was released by ABS his morning. The Far North statistical division surged again from 11.8% up to 13.8%.

However the sexual breakup is more interesting with female unemployment down from 10.2 to 9.6% for the month while male unemployment spiralled from 13.2% last month to an astounding 17.3%!

In November 2007 when the series started Male unemployment was 5.3% and female unemployment 4.9% for a combined 5.1%.

Unknown said...

thanks for posting those stats KitchenSlut

It concerns me that the unemployment rate is going up, and Glen Stevens this morning seems keen on raising interest rates again