JOURNAL OF FACTS

Recent key releases during the last three months have included:

• labour force
• Consumer and House Price Indexes
• housing finance
• building approvals
• retail trade
• lending finance

Labour Force

Labour force for October 2008 - in trend terms the number of employed persons in the ACT was 192,000 up 100 from September 2008. The number of unemployed remained unchanged at (5,300). Between September and October 2008 the trend unemployment rate remained steady at 2.7% and the participation rate decreased from 72.7% to 72.6%.

Nationally, the unemployment rate remained steady, in trend terms, between September and October 2008 (4.3%). The trend participation rate also remained steady (65.2%).


Consumer Price Index (CPI)

At the All groups level, the CPI for Canberra increased by 1.5% in the September quarter 2008, resulting in an annual increase of 5.2% for the year to September 2008. This compared to 1.2% and 5.0% respectively for the average of the eight capital cities.

The groups contributing most to the 1.5% CPI increase for Canberra over September quarter 2008 were Housing, Food, Recreation, Financial and insurance services. Partially offsetting the increases in these groups were marginal declines in Household contents and services, Health and Education.


Housing

Established house prices (preliminary) in Canberra decreased by 2.5% in the September quarter 2008 and remained unchanged annually. This compared to a decrease of 1.8% for the September quarter and an increase of 2.8% annually across the weighted average of eight capital cities. Established house prices in Adelaide rose the most in the year to September 2008 (9.7%) whilst prices in Perth decreased (-4.1%).

In trend terms, the number of housing commitments for owner occupation in the ACT, was 682 in September 2008. This was down on the number recorded in September 2007 (866). The value of these committments in September 2008 was approximately $184 million (trend), up $3 million from August 2008.

In original terms, the average loan size (derived) for ACT owner occupiers was $274,400 in September 2008, up from $264,700 in August 2008.

In trend terms, the number of dwelling units approved in the ACT, decreased by 9 (4%) in September 2008 to 218, from 227 in August 2008.


Retail Trade

Retail turnover in the ACT for September 2008 was $350 million in trend terms. This was up $2 million (0.6%) on August 2008 and up $2 million (0.7%) on September 2007. Comparatively, retail turnover increased by 0.2% from August 2008 to September 2008 and increased by 2.3% between September 2007 and september 2008, for Australia as a whole.


Sources

Labour Force, Australia, October 2008 (cat. no. 6202.0).

Consumer Price Index, Australia, September 2008 (cat. no. 6401.0).

House Price Indexes: Eight Capital Cities, September 2008 (cat. no. 6416.0).

Housing Finance, Australia, September 2008 (cat. no. 5609.0).

Building Approvals, Australia, September 2008 (cat. no. 8731.0).

Retail Trade, Australia, September 2008 (cat. no. 8501.0).

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