Coming up at 11.30 am local time in Sydney

  • 0130 GMT
  • 2130 US Eastern time

Yesterday's subdued wages figures:

The background to today's numbers is that employment growth in February and March was very strong.

  • 117k jobs added
  • the jobless rate dropped to 3.5%

Labour demand has ebbed a little, but its off from historically super-strong highs, so the labour market is by no means weak.

The key figure for the Reserve Bank of Australia is the unemployment rate. The Bank has specifically stated, more than once, that's hiking rates at a slower pace than otherwise in order to limit jobs damage. Indeed the bank forecasts a slower return to target inflation due to this.

Australia jobs preview 18 May 2023

This snapshot from the ForexLive economic data calendar, access it here.

The times in the left-most column are GMT.

The numbers in the right-most column are the 'prior' (previous month/quarter as the case may be) result. The number in the column next to that, where there is a number, is the consensus median expected.