Amid reports that Centrelink is overwhelmed with processing Covid Disaster Payments there has been another parliamentary drop of JobSeeker data up to July 9th. The previous monthly data was for the week ended 25th June. This was the two week period of school holidays and Cairns SA4 saw a further drop of 631 or -3.6% in JobSeeker + Youth Allowance (other) recipients.

There were declines across all SA2 regions with a further notable decline in Port Douglas.

Comparisons elsewhere become problematic with the effect of lockdown restrictions between different regions and states. Queensland numbers increased by a couple of thousand with restrictions imposed in SEQ and Townsville during the holiday period. There was an increase of 317 in the Townsville SA4 while Mackay fell by 361. Gold Coast numbers were up by 743 if I have added up correctly.

So it’s all over the place and likely to stay that way with mutual obligation also suspended in Victoria, NSW and SA.

Previous post: Preliminary June JobSeekers

Thanks again to Michael Klapdor for the links

Uncategorized