‘The mixed bag of Queensland’s unemployment figures are once again both good and bad – depending on which figures you’re looking at.
‘Treasurer Curtis Pitt likes the trend figures – the more pure data set economists tend to prefer, as they are considered to give better insight into the underlying behaviour in the labour market.
‘For Queensland, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported trend unemployment remained stable at 6 per cent over the past month, still higher than the 5.8 per cent national average and just behind Victoria’s 5.9 per cent and Western Australia on 5.7 per cent.
‘But the seasonally adjusted figures, which take into account time of year and other social elements, told a different story. Those figures showed Queensland had the “largest absolute decrease” in employment in the nation, jumping from 5.6 to 6.1 per cent, which equates to a difference of about 15,500 people.
‘The Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland labelled the latest seasonally adjusted figures a potential “turning point” in the state’s labour market.’
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