The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

How does unemployment vary across Australia?

RBS's gun economists answer the question:

"-Most regions have very low unemployment. The biggest group of regions has unemployment of between 3 and 4% (23% of the total number of regions). The next largest group is in the 5-6% range (20% of the total) with the largest group after that in the 4-5% range (17% of the total).

-The regions with the lowest unemployment rates of between 1-2% are in New South Wales (the Hunter Valley excluding Newcastle and some parts of Sydney) and the Northern Territory. Western Australia doesn’t feature in the top ten regions with the lowest unemployment rates (rural WA comes in at number thirteen on the list).

-The two regions with the highest, double-digit unemployment rates are far west New South Wales and the north part of the Gold Coast in Queensland, although some parts of Melbourne also have high unemployment."

at 3:00 PM