Employment slows: A case of lies, damned lies and statistics?

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Labour force Employment rose by just 2,300 people in December, well below forecasts centred on job gains of around 25,000 (range from +10,000 to +40,000 jobs). The November result was

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Investor Signposts: Week Beginning January 16 2011

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The big picture Humans like to think that they control most things. Then along comes a natural disaster like a flood and it reinforces the fact that there are many

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Record credit card use; Surprise lift in tourism

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Migration & Tourism; Credit card lending Record lift in credit card use. The number of purchases and cash out transactions made on credit cards lifted by 13 per cent in

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Flat sharemarket poses questions for investors

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Sharemarket perspectives The CommSec ‘Mums and Dads share index’ – a way of tracking the performance of commonly-held shares – fell by 7.4 per cent in 2010, exceeding the decline

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Trade surplus to moderate as coal volumes fall

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International trade Australia’s trade surplus narrowed by $636 million to $1,925 million in November. Economists had tipped a surplus near $2 billion. Exports were flat over the month while imports

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Record slowdown in spending as job ads slump

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Retail trade; Job Advertisements; Weekly Petrol Price Retail spending rose by just 0.3 per cent in November after the 0.8 per cent slide in October. However Nonfood retailing rose by

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Almost 250,000 families hit by unemployment

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Labour market statistics New figures raise questions about how tight the job market really is. As at June 2010 there were almost a quarter of a million families (244,900) where

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Encouraging pickup in car sales

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Car sales In December, 86,587 vehicles were sold, down by 2.4 per cent compared with a year ago. In seasonally adjusted terms CommSec estimates that sales rose by 1.5 per

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Investor Signposts: Week Beginning January 9 2011

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The big picture One thing we can never escape here in Australia is natural disasters. Whether it is drought, floods, bushfires, cyclones or hail storms, natural disasters are part and

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Home approvals slump but renovation in vogue

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Building Approvals; PSI The outlook for home builders is gloomy. Approvals to build news homes slumped by 4.2 per cent in November. The slide in approvals marked the seventh decline

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