Sydney’s inner and beachside suburbs have the lowest unemployment rates; Most Aussies confused by bank ads: Midday Roundup

Sydney’s inner and beachside suburbs, along with Darwin and Bunbury in Western Australia, boast the country’s lowest unemployment rates, Fairfaxreports.

While the national unemployment rate remained steady in May at 5.8%, rates for individual cities, suburbs and towns differ markedly.

The Sydney CDB, along with its eastern and inner-southern suburbs, hold the nation’s lowest unemployment rate at 2%, followed by Sydney’s northern beaches, Darwin and Bunbury at 2.3%.

Meanwhile, Ipswich in Queensland, south-eastern Tasmania and western NSW rank among the toughest places to find work.

Majority of Aussies confused by bank ads

The majority of Australians find advertisements from banks confusing, misleading or difficult to interpret, according to a survey of 1520 people by the Ehrenberg-Bass Marketing Institute.

The survey found that 70.4% of participants found bank advertisements ‘confusing’, while 64.7% thought they were ‘misleading’.

Only one-third of respondents (33.1%) thought bank advertisements were ‘honest’ and just 26.4% said they were ‘clear’.

The results did not vary significantly whether respondents spoke English as a first language or not.

Local stocks open flat

Local stocks have opened lower, as concerns over the conflict in Iraq rise and iron ore prices continue to salide.

“Further depreciation in the iron-ore price has inflicted additional pain on Fortescue and to a lesser extent Rio, while the more diversified BHP has eked out a modest gain,” said Niall King, sales trader at CMC Markets.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was down 10.8 points to 5394.3 points at 11.55pm AEDT. On Friday, the Dow Jones closed 41.55 points up, rising 0.25% to 16,775.7 points.