Call for caution over top figures

CAIRNS’ unemployment rate has remained stable for June, decreasing by 0.3 per cent since May.

The result is one of the region’s best since 2007 when there were 10,000 fewer people employed.

But Conus partner Pete Faulkner said Cairns’ workforce was much smaller a decade ago and there were now fewer residents looking for, or engaged in, a paid job.

“That’s a generational shift we’re seeing. Many young people are not going into the job market straight away, they’re going on to study first,” he said.

“You’ve got people in their late 50s, early 60s, taking early retirement which also impacts on that figure. There were probably also fewer women in the workforce a decade ago.

“It’s hard to make direct comparisons, but if you look at employment as a percentage of the working population, it was 65.1 per cent 10 years ago and now it’s 59.6 per cent.”

The statewide youth unemployment rate of 13.6 per cent in June, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics information, was unchanged from May.

Cairns’ youth unemployment rate fell 2.4 percentage points to 17.2 per cent.

But Advance Cairns chief executive Kevin Byrne said the figures “did not necessarily represent the true position”.

“There is a lot of underemployment across regional Australia and Queensland in particular that goes largely unreported,” he said.

“We need to understand that the increase in full-time employment has been largely in the public sector and the figures have been supported by a take up in Newstart job programs. While this is welcome, it further emphasises the need for caution in interpreting bullish figures behind a dramatic turnaround in the true unemployment numbers.”