Australian Economy

From CommSec: According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, the national average Australian price of unleaded petrol fell by 0.9 cents to 119.1 cents a litre in the past week – a 10-month low.

From ANZ: Key Points: ANZ Job Advertisements continue to trend up, rising 1.5% m/m in July in seasonally adjusted terms.

By Martin North, cross-posted from the Digital Finance Analytics Blog: Digital Finance Analytics has released the July results from our Household Finance Confidence Index, which shows a further fall, with momentum decaying.

By Leith van Onselen With Melbourne’s and Sydney’s populations growing at a break-neck pace (see below charts), creating all manner of problems from chronic congestion to deteriorating housing affordability, former planning ministers from both states have questioned the efficacy of the federal government’s mass immigration program.

By Leith van Onselen The latest Roy Morgan Research (RMR) unemployment estimate for July registered a 0.5% rise in the unemployment rate over the month but a 1.1% decline over the year: Below are the key points from the release: In July 1.236 million Australians were unemployed (9.4% of the workforce).

By Gareth Aird, Senior Economist at CBA: Key Points: The RBA has shaved a little from their near-term growth forecasts while medium-term projections are broadly unchanged.

By Leith van Onselen Today’s retail sales figures should add to Australia’s June quarter GDP when the national accounts are released early next month.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released retail sales figures for the month of June, which registered a 0.3% rise in seasonally-adjusted sales over the month with annual sales flat at 3.8% growth: In trend terms, annual retail sales growth firmed to 3.6%.

By Leith van Onselen Finally, a state government minister has pushed-back against the federal government’s blind march towards a ‘Big Australia’.

By Leith van Onselen Jim Stanford, director of the Centre for Future Work in Sydney, claims Australia’s youth are the biggest victims of the weak labour market, with increasing numbers unable to secure stable permanent employment.

Cross-posted from The Conversation: Is inequality rising or falling?

by Chris Becker Well here it is!

By Leith van Onselen ABC’s The Business ran a great segment last night on the increasing financial hardship being placed on Australians under the age of 40 in the wake of the results from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey.

By Leith van Onselen The author of the 2017 Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey has reportedly questioned Labor’s claim that inequality is at a 75-year high.

By Leith van Onselen Ever since the 7-Eleven migrant worker scandal broke in 2015, there has been a regular flow of stories emerging about the systemic abuse of Australia’s various migrant worker programs.

By Leith van Onselen The 2017 Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey has revealed the increasing use of, and spending on, paid childcare.

By Leith van Onselen Seeing as Fairfax’s Ross Gittins refuses to re-enter the immigration debate, hence giving free rein to his ‘open borders’ extremist colleagues Peter Martin and Jessica Irvine, I thought I’d write a post on Ross’ behalf collating his past writings on the issue.

by Chris Becker With the demise of the Australian manufacturing industry, particularly automotive, comes two dueling band of military-industrial complex lobbyists trying to lap up the scraps in Victoria and Queensland.

By Leith van Onselen Over recent months, several labour market experts have raised concerns about the proliferation of unpaid internships, which risked becoming a black market for slave labour.