Recent data from Jobs & Skills Australia (JSA), published in The Australian, showed that there were an abundance of applicants per job, suggesting that concerns around labour shortages are overblown. At the economy-wide level, there were 29.3 applications per vacancy, 9.4 qualified applicants per vacancy and 4 suitable applicants per vacancy: Separate recruitment difficulty data
Below is a brilliant guest post from MB reader Erin Rolandsen, CEO of Angelassist: The quality of our lives is determined by the quality of the questions we ask. Today’s productivity summit will ask how to clear the backlog of 30,000 environmental approvals holding up construction. The result is embedded into the question—houses must rise,
DXY is refusing to go away. AUD is going away. CNY not. I’m wary of gold here. Metals dead cat. Miners plain dead. EM rolling. Junk doesn’t care. Yields are falling in a growth scare. Stocks could catch that bug. At issue is a Fed that the market has gotten wrong. In their discussion of
The Market Ear on the sudden fear in tech. NASDAQ fear Too much sudden tech fear… Source: LSEG Workspace The NVDA puke NVDA took out the trend channel yesterday. 50 day comes in around $165 (day lows $168.8). RSI at mid April levels, when the bull started. Source: LSEG Workspace The PLTR puke RSI at
Growth! S&P flash PMI. Flash Australia Composite PMI Output Index: 54.9 (Jul: Index, sa, >50 = growth m/m % qr/qr 53.8) Flash Australia Services PMI Business Activity Index: 55.1 (Jul: 54.1) Flash Australia Manufacturing PMI: 52.9 (Jul: 51.3) Flash Australia Manufacturing PMI Output Index: 53.9 (Jul: 52.3) Australia’s business activity growth accelerated midway through the
Overnight saw Wall Street stumble again, as big tech stocks couldn’t do the heavy lifting while European markets also pulled back slightly although the rising FTSE was an outsider. The release of the latest FOMC meeting minutes saw them highlight inflation and tariff risks with politics pushing in again as the Trump regime places pressure
I have argued from the outset that this week’s productivity summit in Canberra will fail because it won’t address the two most important factors that are wrecking the nation’s productivity: excessive immigration and expensive energy. Australia’s immigration program is simply far too large, poorly targeted, and of low quality to deliver positive outcomes for productivity
RBA interest rates have so far delivered roughly $500 per month in relief to the average mortgage. This is great, but it is not going to move the consumer needle. Why? Two words for you. Gas cartel. The average household pays $3,000 in utility bills, and they are about to rise by about 40%. That’s
Asian share markets are mainly down across the board as risk sentiment continues to shift further into negative space as we all await the Jackson Hole conference on Friday with Fed Chair Powell expected to make some comments regarding the actual trajectory of the US economy before he likely gets fired. The RBNZ cut rates
As predictable as the sun. Daily Mail. Supporters of an anti-immigration rally are being warned not to attend the massive protest, with politicians branding the movement as having ‘no place’ in Australia. March for Australia is organising the protests that will take place on August 31 in several capital cities, including Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth