The Hunter Reseach Foundation has released its latest snapshot of the Hunter economy for the first quarter of 2017. It's been a positive first quarter with businesses being more innovative, house price growth continuing, and consumers saving more.
"There was a sizeable jump in firms introducing new and improved products or services within their own industry or Australia although not so much in new to the world offerings. When we look at our data we can see that Hunter businesses who were innovating are also more likely to be profitable exporting overseas but also more likely to be employing more workers," said lead economist Dr Anthea Bill.
Retail figures were lower than expected with Hunter consumers spending less and saving more. In terms of personal finances, households' expectations are set to remain steady for the next 12 months. According to the research, low wages are mostly to blame for the reduction in spending.
"Wage growth is at historically low levels so even though we've seen an improvement in the world economy, nationally we're not seeing much of a shift in consumption patterns and its sort of an ongoing weakness in the economy, so I think we need to see some improvement in wages to see an improvement in household spending patterns," said Dr Anthea Bill.
On the employment side of the economy, the research found there had been a 1 per cent fall in employment in the first quarter of this year, reversing the rise from the last quarter of 2016. Unemployment also rose to 5.5 per cent in March bringing it back in line with the state average.
