Focus will be on cracks forming in the jobs market for confirmation they are widening at a pace the Reserve Bank is comfortable with.
Thursday’s labour force data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics is expected to show the jobless rate holding at 4.2 per cent in August and the number of employed people rising by 30,000.
While the unemployment rate remains at historically low levels, it has been rising incrementally as higher interest rates work to slow the economy and maim inflation.
Last week, RBA chief economist and assistant governor Sarah Hunter said the labour market was still tight relative to what’s known as “full employment”.
That’s the maximum level of employment consistent with low and stable inflation.
Employers were not cutting hours as much as the RBA would have expected, Dr Hunter said in the speech, and the rising participation rate was also surprising to the bank.
Yet the RBA still expects demand for labour to grow at a slower pace relative to the supply of labour in coming quarters.
This would gradually bring the labour market into better balance and consistent with within-target inflation.
As well as the labour force readout, the national statistics will release March quarter population growth on Thursday.
On Wednesday, RBA assistant governor Brad Jones will speak at the Intersekt Festival in Melbourne.
Meanwhile, Wall Street’s main indexes closed higher on Friday as investors honed in on the chance this week of a bigger interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve. Bets on how much have been volatile.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 297.01 points, or 0.72 per cent, to 41,393.78, the S&P 500 gained 30.26 points, or 0.54 per cent, to 5,626.02 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 114.30 points, or 0.65 per cent, to 17,683.98.
Australian futures rose 16 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 10,641.
The local share market climbed for a second day on Friday, with goldminers in particular posting solid gains as the yellow metal changed hands at its highest-ever level.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed a whisker under 8,100, rising 24.2 points to a 10-day closing high of 8,099.9.
