There are five main points to note about Queensland's labour market for the month of December 2018:
- Queensland’s unemployment rate was steady at 6.2% in trend terms and down from 6.3 to 6.1% seasonally adjusted. Compares to 5.0% nationally (both trend & seasonally adjusted);
- Queensland has the second highest unemployment rate (6.1%) of all States, 1.1 per cent higher than the national average at 5.0%;
- The gap between Queensland's (6.1%) and Australia's unemployment rate (5.0%) has progressively opened up since mid 2017;
- However the good news is that Queensland's employment is now starting to rise again, up 6,000 jobs in December 2018 in trend terms and 11,600 jobs in seasonally adjusted terms; and
- The rise in Queensland jobs over recent months has mainly been as a result of full-time positions.