The Australian dollar has fallen to around 62 US cents, its weakest level since October 2022, while the local share market has tumbled in early trade. This follows the US Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 0.25 percentage points, but indicating there would be fewer rate reductions next year as it forecasts inflation will stay higher for longer. AGL's stock is down 2.5% today in line with the broader market sell-off.
Yet it has just told the ASX that it is unlikely to see any damage to its profit margins, despite also being hit with a $25 million fine today. The ABS uses public money to do its work. It's a new experimental data series from the ABS. That data series will complement the 2026 census (which there's been a political debate about recently). We like to cover things coming from ABS, particularly if they're new. The community of statisticians out there would probably like to know about it. And why not? It's interesting. I've written plenty of posts about the Australian men's cricket team in this blog over the years, and you've never complained. And that's less justifiable than posting about a new data series from the ABS. Gareth Hutchens, the ABS defines employment as anyone employed for one hour or more in a given week and unemployment as those not employed one hour a week and/or looking for work. Very few people can survive on one hour work per week. Therefore, unemployment statistics as defined are problematic and meaningless. Underemployment statistics, are a little better. It’s about time we measured, published and analysed a true picture of the labour market. Total hours worked goes someway but does not tell the full story