The news cycle is about to get very busy, with the federal budget just around the corner and end of financial year coming up fast. In the meantime, here’s what’s making news right now:

Unemployment rate falls
Loan arrears remain low
Population rises 2.52%
Retailers under pressure

The national unemployment rate fell from 4.1% in January to 3.7% in February, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, after a sharp fall in the number of jobless workers.

The number of workers out of employment fell from 600,200 to 548,300, a reduction of 8.7%.

At the same time, the number of workers without a job rose from 14,153,100 to 14,269,600, an increase of 0.8%.

Collectively, an extra 168,500 people found work between January and February.

As a result, the number of hours worked by the labour market rose from 1.879 billion to 1.933 billion, an increase of 2.8%.

Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry CEO Andrew McKellar said the strong labour market highlighted the country’s skill shortages.

“Job vacancies remain at almost double their pre-COVID levels, with employers continuing their struggle to find people with the right skills to fill unfilled positions,” Mr McKellar said.
“The return to work in February is welcome and highlights the continuing need to address skills shortages and ensure that employers have access to employees with the necessary training and experience to fill vacant positions.

Most Australian households and businesses remain able to service their debt, despite the tough economy, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

“Strong conditions in the labour market, the large savings buffers accumulated by many borrowers during the pandemic and rising housing prices are helping households to adapt to challenging economic conditions,” the RBA said in its latest Financial Stability Review.

The RBA also said the “strong financial starting position” of many businesses should limit risks to financial stability.

“While the profit margins of many businesses are around pre-pandemic levels, some businesses are likely to remain under financial pressure over the coming period as sales growth remains subdued; in addition, strong growth in the costs of labour and other inputs is expected to moderate only gradually,” the RBA said.

“Yet, the overall level of profitability and strong balance sheets among businesses reduce the risk of widespread financial stress, and arrears on bank loans to businesses are low.”

As a result, the RBA said the risks to the financial system from lending to households and businesses remained contained.

Australia’s annual population growth rate rose from 2.44% in the June 2023 quarter to 2.52% in the September 2023 quarter, according to the most recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

That was the 10th consecutive quarterly increase, after population growth bottomed out at 0.10% in March 2021, when the international border was closed due to the pandemic.

While the national population is growing at a historically fast rate, that growth is occurring at very different rates from from state to state:

Western Australia = 3.33%.
Victoria = 2.89%.
Queensland = 2.68%.
New South Wales = 2.27%.
ACT = 2.09%.
South Australia = 1.68%.
Northern Territory = 0.72%.
Tasmania = 0.28%.

Retail sales revenue rose just 1.6% in the year to February, well below the 3.4% inflation recorded during the same period, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The Northern Territory was the only part of the country to record above-inflation sales growth (3.5%).

Meanwhile, sales rose 2.5% in Queensland, 2.4% in South Australia, 2.0% in Tasmania, 1.7% in Victoria, 1.5% in Western Australia, 0.7% in the ACT and 0.5% in New South Wales.

Australian Retailers Association CEO Paul Zahra said retailers were doing it tough.

“Australians are still cutting back on spending as the lag effect of interest rate rises continues to take hold. While food spending remained constant, there has been a shift towards more affordable and value-oriented products in recent months,” he said.

“The ongoing cost-of-living pressures and interest rate ramifications are making it a challenging period for those in the discretionary retail sector.

“Any growth that has been achieved is mostly being fuelled by the Australian population increases of 2.5% across the past year.”