Australian Economy

Sydney’s plan to host this year’s Melbourne Cup has taken a solid hit, with the city now struggling to contain various COVID-19 infections spreading across the community.

Callam Pickering, economist at global jobs site Indeed, has release his weekly job postings update, which shows that new job postings – i.e.

The ABS has released its Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages survey, which reveals that total payroll jobs at the end of June remained 5.7% below mid-March when Australia recorded its 100th COVID-19 case.

Taken two weeks ago, pre-Victorian lockdown: • How confident are businesses?

Via CBA: CBA household card spending eased over the week to be 7.2% higher than a year ago.

Melbourne’s COVID-19 outbreak remains out of control, with another 270 cases recorded today: NSW recorded 13 new cases, down slightly from 14 yesterday.

Yesterday, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg acknowledged that Australia’s real unemployment rate is 13.3%, almost double the official figure of 7.1%: JOURNALIST: Treasurer, Andrew Probyn here from the ABC.

Pay attention Anus Bollocks: Consumer confidence has fallen for its third week in a row. https://t.co/ffjMUKciZn — David Plank (@DavidPlank12) July 13, 2020 If reopening spreads the virus then the economy dies.

No it’s not, screams The Australian: The NSW government will prioritise economic recovery over pre-emptive lockdowns, even as it slashes the number of people who will be allowed in the state’s pubs and ramps up enforcement against venues flouting the rules.

Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, an epidemiologist working in chronic disease in Sydney’s west, has penned an article warning against complacency surrounding COVID-19.

With June’s ABS labour market data due for release on Thursday, CBA head of Australian economics, Gareth Aird, forecasts that Australia’s unemployment rate will rise to 7.6% despite a 170,000 rebound in jobs: We expect employment to rise by 170k in June.

Via Banking Day: The RBA’s Term Funding Facility, intended to foster “Support for Business Credit”, to quote the sub-head from the governor’s landmark speech in mid-March, seems to be missing the mark.

Gareth Aird, head of Australian economics at CBA, has released research showing that the impact of international travel restrictions on the Australian economy are not as bad as commonly feared: Key Points: Both tourism exports and imports have collapsed due to international border closures, but education exports remain buoyant.

New figures provided by Labor show there are 13 jobseekers per job vacancy, highlighting the need for emergency income support measures to remain in place beyond September: Labor has seized on new figures showing there are now 13 jobseekers for every single job vacancy in Australia to argue against cutting government supports.

From Roy Morgan Research: In June Australians expected inflation of 3.2% annually over the next two years.

Melbourne’s CBD is in crisis as COVID-19 and the shift to working from home (WFH) has collapsed visitor numbers by an estimated 95%.

It’s another sombre day down here in Melbourne, with Victoria recording 177 new COVID-19 infections, which comes on top of more than 500 new cases recorded over the weekend: NSW infections are also rising with another 14 cases recorded.

Via the AFR: The vacancy rate across the nation’s shopping malls is the highest in more than two decades as the coronavirus crisis accelerates a wave of store closures in a sector already under challenge.

Stupid tax cuts, via The Guardian: There has been some talk that the “stage 2” tax cuts are good because they assist those on low and middle incomes.

Two things I will observe from my one week break.

Victoria has received a grim economic forecast as it heads back into lockdown after the Andrews government reimposed stage three COVID-19 restrictions.