Economic News

A gap of two-tenths of a percentage point on the quarterly average may look small, but in labour market terms it is a noticeable miss. The admission came on the same day theMonetary PolicyBoard lifted the cash rate target by 25 basis points to …

According to the Reserve Bank of Australia's November 2026 Statement on Monetary Policy, the Australian labour market in the September quarter looked more like the second economy than the first. The participation rate averaged 66.9 per cent over the quarter, above what the RBA …

That single sentence from theMonetary PolicyBoard's statement on 3 November 2026 captures the shift in the Reserve Bank of Australia's labour market outlook. The accompanying November Statement on Monetary Policy puts a number on it: unemployment is forecast to rise to 5.1 per cent …

The Statement attributes the upgrade to three factors: tighter capacity in the economy, higher inflation, and inflation expectations. It also reports that the Bank's liaison contacts describe elevated wage expectations, pointing to little easing over the next year.

It is a short line in a long document, but it connects several of the Statement's biggest themes — the upward revision to wage forecasts, the Bank's assessment of spare capacity, and theMonetary PolicyBoard's worry aboutInflationexpectations.

Governor Michele Bullock used those words in her opening statement to the SenateEconomicsLegislation Committee on 28 October 2026, describing the effects of high inflation. Less than a week later, the Reserve Bank of Australia's November Statement onMonetary Policyput numbers on that idea. Its forecasts …

That is theJobof the employment-to-population ratio. According to the economic conditions chapter of the Reserve Bank of Australia's November 2026 Statement on Monetary Policy, the ratio was 63.8 per cent in the September quarter. Put plainly, close to two in every three Australians of …