Australian Economy

By Leith van Onselen Following Fairfax Media’s explosive revelations about widespread fraud and rorting of Australia’s skilled migration program, Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison, has demanded that his department provide him with an urgent report.

By Leith van Onselen As summarised earlier by Houses & Holes, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released labour force data for the month of July, which registered a sharp increase in the headline unemployment rate to 6.4% from an upwardly revised 6.0% in June – the highest unemployment rate for 12 years.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released its Labour Force survey for July and the result is a shocker: Employment decreased 300 to 11,576,600.

From Moody’s today: The demographic dividend that drove economic growth in the past will turn into a demographic tax that will ultimately slow this growth for most countries worldwide.

By Leith van Onselen Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) head, Rod Sims, has today called on Australia’s governments to unlock productivity in our road networks and implement “congestion charges” during peak traffic periods.

The third in the AIG’s PMI series is out today and construction has made it two months in row of expansion: The national construction industry continued to grow in July, with the Australian Industry Group/Housing Industry Association Australian Performance of Construction Index (Australian PCI®) increasing by 0.8 points to 52.6 points (seasonally adjusted).

By Leith van Onselen The AFR has today revealed widespread fraud and rorting of Australia’s skilled migration program.

From the Property Council‘s bi-annual office report: The Sydney and Melbourne office markets continue to perform strongly despite national office market vacancy rates rising over the past six months, according to the Property Council of Australia’s latestOffice Market Report.

By Leith van Onselen The Abbott Government’s plan to require telecommunications companies to store detailed information about the calls and internet use of its customers for two years has been slammed by the commentariat.

By Leith van Onselen The New Zealand economy passed a symbolic milestone today, with the unemployment rate declining to 5.6% in the June quarter and in the process falling below Australia’s unemployment rate for the first time since March 2009 (see next chart).

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released trade data for the month of June, with Australia recording a seasonally-adjusted trade deficit of $1,683 million.

There is really is no stopping the politico-housing complex.

The second of the AIG monthly PMI series is out, the Performance of Services Index and it remains in contraction: Sales and new orders growth drove a slight improvement in the seasonally adjusted Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Services Index (Australian PSI®) in July.

By Leith van Onselen Adam Carr has posted a rather wishful piece at Business Spectator today claiming that the unwinding of the biggest mining investment boom in the nation’s history is not significant and that the nascent acceleration in housing construction will lead to an Australian “jobs boom”.

The Dun and Bradstreet business expectations survey puts in a mixed performance this month: Recall that this survey is poorly named.

By Leith van Onselen Attorney General, George Brandis, has continued his hard line against internet piracy, refusing to accept the High Court’s iiNet decision in 2012, which found that internet service providers could not be found liable for authorising an act by a subscriber that infringes copyright.

By Leith van Onselen While today’s retail sales result beat analyst’s expectations, they are still likely to detract from the country’s June quarter GDP.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has just released retail sales figures for the month of June, which registered a 0.6% seasonally-adjusted rise in sales over the month, beating economist’s expectations of a 0.3% rise.

ANZ job ads are out for July and rose 0.3% to 133,292 per week.

TD Securities/Melbourne Institute (MI) Inflation Gauge for July,  0.2% month on month and  2.6% year on year.