Australia’s unemployment rate has unexpectedly risen to 4.6 per cent, but there’s little in the latest jobs figures to stop the Reserve Bank raising interest rates next week.

The economy added 39,500 jobs in August, almost twice as many as expected, although the gains were driven by part-time work. Unemployment rose because more people entered the workforce looking for jobs, rather than because employment went backwards.

That matters for the RBA. Governor Michele Bullock said this week that unemployment somewhere between 4.5 and 5 per cent may be needed to take enough heat out of the labour market to ease inflation. At 4.6 per cent, Australia is now inside that range — but employment is still growing and participation remains high.

Markets trimmed the probability of a rate rise slightly after the figures, but an increase next week remains overwhelmingly expected. The bigger question is what happens after that. Rising unemployment suggests previous rate hikes are slowly working, potentially making another increase later this year more dependent on what happens next with inflation, jobs and consumer spending.

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Greed-o-meter

The trend is your friend, and this chart from CreditorWatch's chief economist Ivan Calhoun demonstrates the trend in unemployment.

Fear & Greed Q+A today

On how big data can reveal patterns in our behaviour - and help disrupt financial crime:

 

“We are using the latest techniques to try and really trace and track and identify where bad actors are getting active, and help the police and others to try and really cut down and disrupt the financial crime activity.

 

One good example is banks. Banks have millions of transactions every minute. And they are doing a lot of work around reporting, but also disrupting things like scams and money laundering operations and things that, generally, we as Australians would agree we need less of.

 

If we get onto that and if we do it proactively, that helps protect vulnerable customers and citizens who might be subject to that attack. It’s better for the integrity of our financial system.”

News in brief

OpenAI hacks government websites: Anthony Albanese has demanded answers from OpenAI boss Sam Altman after an internal AI agent gained unauthorised access to Medicare and three other Australian government websites.

Retail pain: Solomon Lew’s Premier Investments has joined the growing list of retailers struggling with weak consumer spending. Peter Alexander sales rose 3.2 per cent to a record $565 million, but Smiggle slumped almost 13 per cent as the stationery brand undergoes an overhaul.

China takes possession of F-35 parts: Potentially sensitive parts from an Australian F-35 fighter jet have ended up in Chinese government hands after being inexplicably diverted to Hong Kong while travelling to the US.

BHP halts world’s biggest copper mine: BHP has suspended operations at Escondida in Chile after an employee was killed while performing maintenance work. Escondida is the world’s largest copper mine and increasingly important to BHP as the miner shifts its portfolio towards the metal needed for electrification.

EV charging: Chinese carmaker Geely has unveiled an EV battery that it says can charge from 10 to 70 per cent in just four-and-a-half minutes, beating rival BYD. The catch is the charger: at up to 2.2 megawatts, its peak output is more than four times that of Tesla’s latest Superchargers.

Fear-o-meter

Professor Yang Xiang from Monash University, on OpenAI's hack of Medicare:

“An OpenAI agent’s unauthorised access to Australia’s Medicare statistics portal in June is a serious warning about the risks of agentic AI.

“This kind of intrusion and access actioned by an AI agent is significantly different from a scenario where a human hacker orchestrates a cyberattack. An AI agent has the capability of trying to ‘unlock’ a virtual ‘locked door’ numerous times in a short period and potentially breaking in.

“There is currently no evidence that personal information was accessed, but the breach still matters. A legitimate task does not justify unauthorised actions. An AI agent must treat a locked door as a limit to respect, not a puzzle to solve.

“The delayed response also shows how far our defences have to go. Agent behaviour can be difficult to monitor and audit at scale. Protecting public systems will require better detection of AI agent activity, tighter limits on what agents can access, and faster incident reporting.

“Agentic AI can be enormously useful, but it must be used responsibly. That is why trustworthy AI is no longer optional.”

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