Business

Ross Gittins

Ross Gittins is economics editor of the SMH and an economic columnist for The Age. His books include Gittins' Guide to Economics, Gittinomics and The Happy Economist.

What's the real extent of joblessness? It's a tricky question considering Australia's army of part-time workers with ...

Here's the truth of the matter about unemployment

So, the Australian Bureau of Statistics told us this week, the rate of unemployment fell a click to 5.6 per cent in July. Trouble is, most people know the official unemployment rate understates the extent of the problem.

We know the importance of "confidence" in driving the business cycle, but it doesn't just apply to businesses and ...

Wage growth will strengthen, and soon

There's been a sound economic justification – the need to restore our industries' international price competitiveness - for our weak wage growth over the past three or four years.

Boris Johnson misunderstood why Australia has had 26 years of uninterrupted growth.

Higher employment our payoff for avoiding recession

When Boris Johnson, Britain's Foreign Minister, visited Oz lately, he implied that our record 26-year run of uninterrupted economic growth was owed largely to the good fortune of our decade-long resources boom.

Speculating on rates. Illustration: Glen Le Lievre

Last charge of the rate-rise brigade

Do you realise the Reserve Bank board hasn't changed Australia's official interest rate from 1.5 per cent for almost a year? But that hasn't stopped people in the financial markets from speculating furiously about whether rates are about to go down – or go up.