• New business investment rose by 6.2 per cent in the September quarter – the biggest increase in three years. Mining dominated investment plans with investment in the sector up by 15.6 per cent as opposed to manufacturing investment which fell by 6.3 per cent in the September quarter.
• Equipment spending fell by 1.1 per cent in the quarter while spending on buildings rose by 13.4 per cent.
• Businesses expect to invest $123.9 billion in the 2010/11 year unchanged on the third estimate from the June quarter and slightly down on the usual (decade average) upgrade of 1.7 per cent made by firms at this time of the year. Investment plans are up 19.5 per cent on the equivalent estimate made a year ago.

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• In percentage terms, employment in the mining sector expanded rapidly over the past year. In the year to August, mining sector employment grew by 33,000 workers or 20 per cent, significantly outperforming other sectors.
• Over the three months to August, employment across Australia grew by 78,500 or 0.7 per cent – well above the 10-year average job growth of 56,000.
• The biggest industry in terms of employment remains health care and social assistance. And the health care sector led the job gains, with employment lifting by 45,200.
• Across the states NSW (+28,100) led the job gains in the three months to August, followed by Victoria (+13,800), and Western Australia (+12,600). Virtually all the job losses occurred in Queensland (-22,200).
• The Reserve Bank Assistant Governor Philip Lowe has highlighted the concerns about the “relatively limited amount of spare capacity in the economy” and the resulting threat of inflation.
• In seasonally adjusted terms imports fell by 6 per cent in August. The slide in imports suggests that the recent spell of trade surpluses should continue.

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