Job security? What job security? It’s almost as though the concept has completely disappeared in this COVID age of lockdowns, stand downs and failing companies. It’s not just COVID putting people out of work either. Modern business practices mean companies continue to “resize”, “downsize”, “re-engineer”, or whatever the latest management buzz word is. In the… Read more »
With the prospect of a lengthier lockdown looming over Sydney, the idea of “living with the virus” has resurfaced. But it’s not something supported by most economists. by John Quiggin, The University of Queensland and Richard Holden, UNSW NSW’s health minister, Brad Hazzard, raised the prospect of abandoning the lockdown and accepting that “the virus… Read more »
Greater Sydney is in its seventh week of lockdown, with no clear end in sight. The situation calls for support both for businesses and households suffering severe income loss in the weeks ahead. By Peter Whiteford, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University and Bruce Bradbury, UNSW Greater Sydney makes up about one-fifth of… Read more »
The biggest unstated message from the intergenerational report released during the lull between lockdowns is that we will need more tax. Not now. At the moment it’s a matter of throwing everything we’ve got at getting on top of the COVID outbreaks and worrying about how to (and the extent to which we will need… Read more »
It has been an interesting week for property research. Banking giant Westpac estimates national house prices will only fall by a further 2.3 per cent by the end of the financial year before rebounding by 15 per cent over the following two years. The bank had previously predicted a 10 per cent plunge in prices… Read more »
Market stability and continued momentum in shares helped to bolster account balances in August. However, while consumers and investors are looking ahead to a ‘COVID normal’ world, the recovery is highly dependent on infection rates and the gradual easing of restrictions across the country. According to estimates from leading superannuation research house SuperRatings, the median… Read more »
What about those unemployment figures… wow… no-one saw that coming. Most experts predicted another big loss in jobs and rise in unemployment. Instead, our unemployment rate for August fell from a 22 year high of 7.5 per cent to 6.8 per cent… experts were predicting 7.7 per cent. Around 111,000 jobs were created… or more… Read more »
Hi gang, Was chatting with my colleague, David Scutt (Scutty), from our Ausbiz streaming service during the week about all the economic data coming out and what it’s telling us about the economy going forward. I really value Scutty’s perspective because he is a good counter to my natural optimism. In his view, forget trying… Read more »
Lot to get through with the release of the National Accounts … which we used to refer to as the “economic growth” figures until we didn’t grow. As expected the economy contracted 7 per cent in the June quarter, and 6.3 per cent for the year, as the economy was smashed by the impact of… Read more »
Wage growth low… and could stay that way for a while No surprises in the latest wage data with growth weak in line with the job market. What was surprising is that wage growth edged higher in the three months to June. The Wage Price Index (WPI) rose 0.2 per cent in the June quarter but over… Read more »
