Articles by Guest Expert

When Labor leader Anthony Albanese couldn’t quote Australia’s unemployment rate in the first week of the election campaign, many said it didn’t matter. The Australian Bureau of Statistics figure was “meaningless”; “fudged”; “manipulated”; and didn’t count all those who had been registered for JobSeeker. The truth is the official measure of unemployment does what it…

If you’re building or renovating a home and are frustrated with huge delays, you’re not alone. Australia’s builders are struggling to find timber. For items such as laminated veneer lumber – used for frames and beams – they’ve reported waiting up to four months. For trusses – used to build walls and roofs – up…

It is 15 years since Apple released what’s arguably its flagship device: the iPhone. A decade and a half later, there are few products that have managed to reach a similar level of brand recognition. Announced to an eager audience in 2007, the iPhone has revolutionised how we communicate and even how we live day…

The Reserve Bank of Australia is about to be put under the microscope in the first major review of its performance in at least 30 years, and perhaps forever. In research published this month in the Economic Record, Australian Labor member of parliament Andrew Leigh and I analyse how the bank has set interest rates…

How resilient will countries be in 2022? Economies have to contend with commodity shortages related to the Russia-Ukraine war, supply chain issues due to lockdowns in China, and tightening monetary policy as inflation rises. In light of these challenges, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered its economic predictions for 2022 and beyond. The IMF…

The world’s biggest nation is about to shrink. China accounts for more than one-sixth of the world’s population. Yet after four extraordinary decades in which China’s population swelled from 660 million to 1.4 billion, its population is on track to turn down this year, for the first time since the great famine of 1959-1961. According…

The past year has been awash with suggestions countries such as Australia are experiencing a “great resignation” as workers previously loyal to their employers quit their jobs and look for others elsewhere. Last year, newspaper articles aside, there was little evidence for this in Australia, although substantial evidence in the United States where the term…

The rate of unemployment remained steady at 3.9% between April and May. Australia has now managed to keep a rate of unemployment below 4% for three consecutive months is extraordinarily good news. It gets better. While the unemployment rate didn’t improve, the labour market did, substantially. The number of Australians in jobs climbed by 60,620…

Barely a month ago, Anthony Albanese was derided as a “loose unit” for endorsing a 5.1% increase in the minimum wage. His rationale was, that with 5.1% inflation, the incomes of the lowest-paid Australians at least shouldn’t be going backwards. Now the Fair Work Commission’s expert panel, which reviews the minimum wage each year, has…