commonwealth

many people use mortgage redraw/offset accounts as a 'tax beneficial' way of 'earning' interest through the ofsetting mechanism.

bingobob777

My employer (engineering consultancy) announced second lot of redundancies today and all pay rises and promotions suspended

Miners not spending
State Govts not spending
Federal Govt. not spending

Consultancies, contractors and suppliers going to have a tough couple of years

Amazulu

I won't comment on the other 2, but the state government? They're spending shitloads - probably too much. Look around you and see all the public works going on - Elizabeth Quay, City link, 3 new hospitals, rail extension, GE Highway and other roads, electricity grid, indoor stadium etc. Plenty of private construction going on too.

Facts are cool.

chris955

Thank goodness we havent got someone come on and tell us how Aussies are earning over $70,000 a year and getting 5% pay rises every year.
From what I understand Queensland certainly isnt spending, the opposite in fact and I'm not sure if NSW have any money to spend.

Budawang

The economy has three engines of growth: households, businesses and government. The only engine that's not going sideways at the moment is the business sector. If business investment hits the skids then a recession is likely, unless one of the other two engines doesn't fire up.

TKline

5.2% if you can trust the ABS data.

Roy Morgan poll puts the real unemployment rate at 10%

Unemployment 10% - highest since January 2012

Now that's not so positive!

chris955

No-one believes 5.2%.

Fran_L

10% if you can trust Roy Morgan Research...

Didn't they dismiss 56 casual and temporary staff by email due to low staffing demand in 2008? Not really helping the unemployment rate themselves... Anyway, that's neither here nor there.

In comparison with the unemployment rates in Greece, Spain and Portugal, I think Australia's doing ok... Take a look at these reports on global unemployment statistics: http://bit.ly/RkKIF9 and http://1.usa.gov/TP2yPD

chris955

Compared to those countries indeed just about everywhere is doing well.

Amazulu

What is it then?
What is it in the UK?

chris955

Who knows ?

Amazulu

Who the f**k is Roy Morgan?

The beauty of official figures, be they unemployment, inflation, growth etc, is that they are 'official' and not some asshole's opinion - which is basically worthless.

Amazulu

You have previously stated that you believe neither the UK's or Australia's figures. So:
Is 'real' unemployment higher or lower in Australia?
Is 'real' unemployment higher or lower in the UK?

Fran_L

According to the Office for National Statistics, the unemployment rate for Q3 in 2012 was 7.8%, which is evidently worse than Australia's official reading of 5.2%. This explains why Australia is the country with the most British expats, according to the fifth annual edition of the NatWest International Personal Banking Quality of Life Index. (1.4 million of nearly 5 million living overseas.)

chris955

The problem is you get some people repeatedly using those official figures as gospel and using them as a reason to go to Australia. My personal opinion is that there is little if any difference in the overall rate in both countries, some areas high, some low.