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Simon Kuestenmacher

Simon Kuestenmacher

The Australian

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The Stats Guy: Demographic forecasts for 2025

Last week I gave you some alarming forecasts for the coming year, this week there’s a little more good news thrown into the mix. For part two of my...

16.12.2024 5

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

The Stats Guy looks into demographic crystal ball

This is the time of the year to publish the most dangerous type of columns – predictions for the coming year. I shall not be holding back and only...

10.12.2024 30

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

The Stats Guy: Why the coming 10 years will be the decade of the car

Last week we explored what type of vehicles Australians are driving and learned that our cars have gotten bigger. It’s not just that we drive...

02.12.2024 3

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

Autobeasity is a big problem on our roads

The Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE) publishes a sort of census of the road vehicles registered in Australia....

23.11.2024 2

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

Why Australia will continue to rely on high migration

21.11.2024 2

The Australian

Simon Kuestenmacher

React or prevent? Politics must make this big shift

As a demographer, I think long term. Imagining what the world looks like a decade from now is standard, but thinking in generations is also normal...

21.11.2024 10

InDaily

Simon Kuestenmacher

Nation needs to make the most of Aussie workers

I made the argument in previous columns that Australia is running out of workers; that the current skills shortage will persist (even under a...

15.11.2024 3

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

This data might signal an end to the LNP and ALP

Our resident Stats Guy looks at the rise of voters picking independents over the two major parties at past federal elections. For decades now, the...

13.11.2024 2

InDaily

Simon Kuestenmacher

Most common jobs reveal pattern of care giving

At a recent event I was asked: What was the most common job in Australia? An easy question. Sales assistants are by far the most common job. The...

13.11.2024 3

InDaily

Simon Kuestenmacher

It pays in many ways to think in the long term

As a demographer, I think long term. Imagining what the world looks like a decade from now is standard, but thinking in generations is also normal...

11.11.2024 10

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

Most common jobs show who does the caring

At a recent event I was asked: What was the most common job in Australia? An easy question. Sales assistants are by far the most common job. The...

02.11.2024 4

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

This data might spell the end of the ALP and LNP

For decades now, the Australian Election Study (AES) has interviewed voters after each federal election. Some survey questions have been asked...

26.10.2024 2

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

What could stop Australia’s baby drought?

The Australian birth rate has reached a historic low. OK, technically we are referring to the total fertility rate (TFR), but in the public...

20.10.2024 20

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

Here’s the facts for Aussies to be optimists

As a public speaker and demographic consultant, I speak to dozens of people in Australia every week about the state of the economy and the general...

13.10.2024 30

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

Do more win than lose when house prices are up?

09.10.2024 1

The Australian

Simon Kuestenmacher

Why is the education system worse for boys?

Last week’s column discussed the growing number of young men aged 15 to 24 years who are not in employment or full-time education. I made the claim...

05.10.2024 10

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

The big challenges facing young men

Around the developed world, data shows that young men and women increasingly diverge in their political ideologies. Young men are much more...

29.09.2024 30

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

Social media fuels rise in ‘work-image’ issues

A general rule in forecasting says that regulation follows innovation. Outside of medicine, we are first exposed to innovations in a very pure and...

21.09.2024 4

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

We can learn from far right’s rise in Germany

In two German states, both in the former communist eastern part of Germany, the far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) party won historic amounts...

14.09.2024 10

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

Our biggest cities diverge on office work trends

Three weeks ago, the NSW Government called its staff to return to the office (RTO) at scale. Many public servants hate the idea as they don’t want...

09.09.2024 2

InDaily

Simon Kuestenmacher

Work from home trends reveal a tale of two cities

Three weeks ago, the NSW Government called its staff to return to the office (RTO) at scale. Many public servants hate the idea as they don’t want...

02.09.2024 5

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

Reasons why Kiwis love to make Australia home

New Zealand and Australia are close friends. Citizens of one country can work without major restrictions in the other country. The visa schemes are...

26.08.2024 20

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

Nation goes backwards as middle-class shrinks

Australia has slipped dramatically in international rankings measuring innovation and economic complexity over the past couple of decades. The...

19.08.2024 10

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

In the end, there's no place like home

Spoiler alert – we are all going to die. However, we push the inevitability of death deep into our subconscious unless we know someone with severe...

12.08.2024 3

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

What jobs will drive the world’s future?

Some jobs come and go as technology changes, while other jobs are always around in some form. Here, we shall explore which jobs are linked to...

05.08.2024 3

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher

One chart illustrates 100 years of nation’s history

The shape of our population profile shapes how we grow up, how we think about our future, and our role in society. This chart explains in broad...

26.07.2024 2

The New Daily

Simon Kuestenmacher