Author: roymorgansocial

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence unchanged at 86.7 in mid-November after RBA leaves interest rates unchanged at 4.35%

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 13-Nov-24

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence was unchanged at 86.7 in the week to 10 November; however, it has stayed above the mark of 85 for a fourth consecutive week for the first time since January 2023. Consumer Confidence is now 12.4 points above the same week a year ago (74.3), and 4.2 points above the 2024 weekly average of 82.5. A look at Consumer Confidence by State shows varied results around the country with small increases in NSW, WA and SA, and small declines in Victoria and Queensland. Now 22% of Australians (down 1ppt) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year, while 48% (up 1ppt) say their families are ‘worse off’. Looking forward, 34% (down 1ppt) of Australians expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year, while 30% (unchanged) expect to be ‘worse off’. Now 10% (unchanged) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next 12 months, while 30% (up 2ppts) expect ‘bad times’. Meanwhile, 26% (up 4ppts) of Australians say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items (the highest figure for this indicator since January 2023), while 45% (down 1ppt) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ

In October Australian unemployment dropped to 9.2% as full-time employment grew and over 100,000 left the workforce

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 13-Nov-24

In October 2024, Australian ‘real’ unemployment dropped 60,000 to 1,450,000 (down 0.3% to 9.2% of the workforce), as over 100,000 people left the workforce. In addition to the unemployed, a further 1.48 million Australians (9.4% of the workforce) were under-employed, i.e. working part-time but looking for more work, up 22,000 from September. In total, 2.93 million Australians (18.6% of the workforce) were either unemployed or under-employed in October. Australian employment dropped 58,000 to 14,247,000; this decrease was driven by a fall in part-time employment (down 190,000 to 4,743,000), but full-time employment increased 132,000 to a new record high of 9,504,000. The total workforce in October was 15,697,000 (down 118,000 from September, but up 867,000 from two years ago). Roy Morgan’s unemployment figure of 9.2% for October is more than double the ABS estimate of 4.1% for September, but it is approaching the combined ABS unemployment and under-employment figure of 10.4%.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS

Roy Morgan Business Confidence jumps 12.4pts to 106.7 in October as official inflation falls into the RBA’s target range

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 13-Nov-24

In October 2024, Roy Morgan Business Confidence was 106.7 (up 12.4pts since September) as official ABS monthly inflation dropped from 3.5% in July to 2.7% in August (announced in late September) and has now fallen to only 2.1% in September (announced in late October). Business Confidence is now 4.5pts below the long-term average of 111.2, although it is up 16.3pts on October 2023. Roy Morgan Business Confidence has now improved to its most positive rating since April 2022, and is the highest it has been since the Albanese Government was elected in May 2022. Now 59% (up 6.8ppts) of businesses expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next year (the highest figure for this indicator since February 2022), while only 36.8% (down 7.9ppts) expect ‘bad times’ (the lowest figure for this indicator since February 2022). Meanwhile, 46.3% (up 5.2ppts) of businesses expect the business to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year, while 20.6% (down 4.4ppts) expect the business to be ‘worse off’ financially. The latest Roy Morgan Business Confidence results for October are based on 1,884 detailed interviews with a cross-section of Australian businesses from each State and Territory.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Major airlines cashing in on Rexit

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Original article by Joseph Lam
The Australian – Page: 15 : 13-Nov-24

Data from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission shows that Qantas and Virgin have benefited from the collapse of Rex Airlines. The major carriers’ revenue per passenger on capital city routes has risen to $98.40, compared with $86.80 in July when Rex went into voluntary administration and ceased servicing these routes. The ACCC has warned that market concentration means that further increases in airfares are likely, while it may take some time for a serious third competitor to enter the domestic aviation market. Meanwhile, the federal government will provide Rex with $80m of taxpayers’ money to keep servicing its regional routes.

CORPORATES
REX AIRLINES PTY LTD, REGIONAL EXPRESS HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX REX, QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN, VIRGIN AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION

Labor fails to rein in migration

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Original article by Julie Hare, Gus McCubbing
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 10 : 13-Nov-24

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that net overseas migration totalled 391,850 people in the first nine months of 2024. This is the highest level ever recorded for the first three quarters of a calendar year, eclipsing the record of 390,580 that was set in 2023. Monthly arrivals in the first quarter of 2024-25 averaged 41,823; the Institute of Public Affairs has estimated that this will need to fall to just 21,670 if the federal government’s net migration target of 260,000 for the current financial year is to be achieved. Meanwhile, Department of Home Affairs data shows that Immigration Minister Tony Burke did not cancel any visas on character grounds during his first month in the portfolio.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS, INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS LIMITED, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HOME AFFAIRS

‘Worst of a bad bunch’: Choice names NIB and Meta among worst Australian products and services of the year

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Original article by Sharlotte Thou
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 13-Nov-24

Consumer advocacy group Choice has announced the winners of its annual Shonky awards. Choice’s editorial director Mark Serrels says private health insurer NIB has won a Shonky award for charging single parents higher premiums than couples. Meta has also become a Shonky award recipient for not taking sufficient action to remove scam advertisements from its platforms. Other Shonky winners include Daily Juice Co for selling juice drinks that contain food colouring to achieve a ‘green’ look; Choice contends that although the company did not claim that the product contained vegetable content, it was reasonable for consumers to assume that they did.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN CONSUMERS’ ASSOCIATION, NIB HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NHF, META PLATFORMS INCORPORATED, DAILY JUICE COMPANY

MinRes admits it failed to disclose related-party transactions

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Original article by Mark Wembridge
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 13-Nov-24

Iron ore and lithium producer Mineral Resources has conceded that transactions involving a British Virgin Islands-registered company should have been disclosed to investors at least two years ago. MinRes has acknowledged that the deals with Far East Equipment Holdings were related-party transactions and therefore should have been disclosed before June 2022. The deal for Far East to sell mining equipment to MinRes at inflated prices was part of a tax evasion scheme that has embroiled MD Chris Ellison. The contracts with Far East were made prior to MinRes listing on the sharemarket in 2006.

CORPORATES
MINERAL RESOURCES LIMITED – ASX MIN, FAR EAST EQUIPMENT HOLDINGS

PM to quote Turnbull in Trump tariff talks

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 13-Nov-24

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will travel to Peru on Wednesday to attend the APEC leaders’ summit, ahead of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week. However, he has rejected the Coalition’s push to have a stopover in the US to meet with president-elect Donald Trump, amid concerns that Australia will be directly impacted by his proposed tariff of up to 20 per cent on all non-China imports. Albanese has indicated that he will use similar arguments in tariff talks with Trump as those of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2017; the latter’s argument that Australia was one of the few nations that had a trade surplus with the US helped convince Trump to shelve plans to impose punitive tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION, GROUP OF TWENTY (G-20), UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Social media ban alarms YouTubers

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Original article by Sam Buckingham-JonesEuan Black
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 12-Nov-24

Mark and Tina Harris say their children’s-themed YouTube channel Lah-Lah would become unviable if the federal government goes ahead with its plan to ban children under the age of 16 from accessing YouTube and other social media platforms. Speaking on the sidelines of the Tech Council of Australia’s National Tech Summit in Melbourne, Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said the government has not yet decided how it will enforce the ban, while he suggested that there could be exemptions to the ban on educational grounds.

CORPORATES
TECH COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIAYOUTUBE INCORPORATED

Workers, don’t bank on wage rise

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 5 : 12-Nov-24

Data from the Australian Human Resources Institute shows that 23 per cent of employers intend to impose a wage freeze in the year to October 2025. This compares with 16 per cent of respondents to its survey in the Septemer quarter. Respondents also indicated that they expect a mean basic pay increase of just 2.7 per cent excluding bonuses in the next year; Australia’s annual inflation rate was 2.8 per cent in the year to September. AHRI CEO Sarah McCann-Bartlett said the data provides further evidence that the surge in wages growth over the last two years might have peaked.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN HUMAN RESOURCES INSTITUTE