Preliminary monthly JobSeeker numbers for June provided to a parliamentary committee show JobSeeker + Youth Allowance (other) recipients in Cairns SA4 fell by 941 or 5%

This is well above the national decline of 2%. However, as posted back following initial JobSeeker data for April 2020 simple percentages can misrepresent where they are applied to a different base between regions or states relative to the labour force or population. Queensland has a higher base than NSW or Victoria. Cairns has a higher base than other Queensland regions. I will review this with a long intended post when full data is posted and why we should be circumspect about DSS recipients as a labour market indicator.

Percentage of all JobSeeker recipients (ex Youth Allowance which is higher) in Australia reporting income remains above all previously reported levels.

I have extended this back further than previously to include all available data. While the latest number is 3.3 percentage points above June 2019 it isn’t so far above levels back in 2016.

This leaves open to what extent the scandalous robodebt scheme suppressed numbers prior to covid. This is what I want to get back to when we have the full data so I wont post the specific SA2 level changes for now.

H/T again for the links Michael Klapdor

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