Today, the ABS released its regional unemployment figures for October, which revealed that unemployment across Australia’s key coal regions is among the highest in the nation. From CommSec:
Regional Queensland is doing it tough – especially in the north. And mining regions are suffering…
The region with the highest jobless rate over the past year was Wide Bay with a 10.5 per cent jobless rate over the past year…
The downturn in the coal industry has clearly affected the job market in the Hunter Valley. Over the past year the jobless rate averaged 10.2 per cent – well above the 5.8 per cent average over the past 15 years.
The Hunter Valley also has the highest variation between the short and longer term jobless rate – 4.4 per cent percentage points (pp) between the 12-month average jobless rate and 15-year average. Next highest is Murray, NSW (3.5pp); Mackay, Qld (3.1pp); and South-east South Australia (3.1pp).
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
