There are around 9 million Australians (which accounts for 35% of the population) living in suburbs classified as ‘childcare deserts’, where children outnumber childcare spaces by more than 3-to-1. A new report, published by the Mitchell Institute and Victoria University, maps out the shortage of childcare services across every neighbourhood in the country and compares…
![Lowest unemployment rate since 1974. What now for interest rates? [7 Charts]](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Unemployment-2-270x200.jpg)
Australia can finally boast its lowest unemployment rate since 1974 after the unemployment rate dropped to 3.9 per cent in April. ABS statistics showed an additional 4000 jobs were added last month, tipping unemployment below 4 per cent for the first time in 48 years. Despite the still-declining unemployment rate, employment growth disappointed up only…
Wage growth levels have remained steady this year with annual increases trickling up marginally. Real wage growth (the difference between wages and inflation) however has crashed by a record low level – with consumers now also confronted with the extra costs of higher interest rates. The ABS reports that the Wage Index seasonally adjusted increased…
Another sign of the strength of our economy is that SEEK’s new job ads rose 2.9% month on month in April, further extending record highs in a 4th consecutive month of growth. Overall, job ads are an incredible 74.1% higher than pre-pandemic levels, indicating labour demand remains elevated even as employment has more than recovered…
The latest ABS figures show housing finance approvals rose in March by 1.6% month on month, after being -3.5% in February. However, this was almost certainly the peak of the lending cycle and it’s likely that loan approvals will fall moving forward. Clearly, investors are back in the market, but new loans to owner-occupiers and…
The RBA has acted to curb high inflation by lifting the cash rate target today, moving from the emergency lows of 0.1% to 0.35%, an increase of 25 basis points. An upwards move was anticipated, given soaring inflation, but the timing and magnitude of the lift are likely to be regarded as controversial, given the…
Australian consumer prices jumped an extraordinary 2.1% in the first three months of the year, the biggest quarterly jump since the introduction of the 10% goods and services tax at the start of the century. The outsized increase, together with a larger than normal increase in the months to December, pushed Australia’s annual inflation rate…
Inflation expectations are simply the rate at which people—consumers, businesses, investors—expect prices to rise in the future. They matter because actual inflation depends, in part, on what we expect it to be. If everyone expects prices to rise, say, 5 percent over the next year, businesses will want to raise prices by (at least) 5…
Over the month of March, growth in houses was 0.5% across the combined capital cities, outperforming the growth in the value of apartments. This continues the annual trend where houses grew 22.9% over the last 12 months while apartments only grew in value by 13.2%. At the national level, units recorded a 0.3% rise in…
The RBA has dramatically changed its recent guidelines for a rise in official interest rates, indicating that higher rates will now likely come sooner rather than later. The RBA has consistently stated that a rate rise was dependent on inflation being “sustainably within the 2 to 3 per cent target range”. The minutes of the…
