Amidst rising unemployment, declining job ads, and a dwindling number of expected rate cuts, household spending is stalling, despite robust levels of working-age population growth, largely driven by migration.
The latest ABS household spending data shows that in inflation-adjusted terms, households had only grown their spending by 0.2% in the September quarter.
If you were in the cockpit of a 747, the warning alarm would scream, “STALL, STALL, STALL”.
This result was down significantly from the 0.9% in the June quarter and the weakest result since September last year.
When factoring in population growth, the quarter saw a contraction of 0.25%—the fifth contraction in the last eight quarters.
Between December 2018 and the latest data, household spending per capita over almost seven years has risen by just 2.61%. That is close to flat lining.
If we consider the first quarter of 2023 as the true starting point for post-pandemic data, per capita household spending has fallen by 0.47%.
Household spending has been going absolutely nowhere for the best part of three years.
For households aged 25 to 29, they have seen what is a technical depression in their spending growth.
At the other end of the spectrum, the 75 and over demographic has seen extremely robust growth.
Impact of AI
In a recent ABC survey, people were worried about how AI was destroying their careers while contributing to a decline in entry-level roles for new starters.
Republic Resumes has noted a fall of about 20 per cent in client numbers since August, although this picked up in September and collapsed again in October.
Many of Republic’s clients were looking for new jobs or considering a career change as employers adopt AI.
I also write corporate speeches and this has slumped by 15 per cent in the last six months as executive assistants try to use ChatGPT to write an engaging and fact-filled speech, using the latest propaganda and persuasive techniques.
Good luck with that.
The federal government’s National AI Centre says 40 per cent of small and medium businesses are adopting AI – Republic Resumes is not one of them.
Many respondents expressed frustration with AI as it had added to their workloads. Their jobs now involved correcting AI errors, as well as false information known as “hallucinations”, or working with bland, low-quality AI summaries known as “slop”.
Recruiters are being inundated by AI written resumes, most of which hit the ‘reject’ pile.
Employers are looking for ways to harness AI to rapidly summarise large volumes of information, draft emails, reports, and job ads, fill out forms, and do repetitive work.
Unfortunately, some of the dumbest employers are using AI hiring systems to screen and shortlist job candidates, even though the technology creates serious risks of discrimination.
AI systems promise to save employers time and money in the recruitment process by using cutting-edge technology, such as CV scanners and vocal assessments, to “classify, rank and score” job applicants.
Computer programs are assessing a jobseeker’s application right now, and accepting or rejecting it based on its machine understanding before the person reaches an interview stage with a human.