Bob
Your data analyst
The Unemployment Rate stays the dominant story, holding at 4.49% after last week's flip from green to amber. No fresh labour print this week, but the band change continues to colour the data around it. Centrelink Avg Call Wait Time stretched to 16.8 minutes from 15.5, an 8.4% jump that fits the softer jobs read. Business Insolvencies eased to 14,224 from 14,722, a 3.4% improvement, though the metric remains firmly in the red band.
Housing kept its split character. Building Approvals sit at 17,703 dwellings after the 4.96% drop, while New Dwelling Completions hold at 47,803 for the quarter, up 8.05% on the prior. Retail Turnover firmed to $37.91 billion, a 1.2% lift and still green. Cost-of-living signals were mixed: Average Electricity Price edged up half a cent to 33.5 c/kWh, and Childcare Out-of-Pocket Costs lifted $2 to $122 per week, both still red. On the longer-run capacity side, R&D Expenditure (% GDP) nudged up to 1.70% from 1.69%.
The fortnight ahead is the heaviest in the calendar. RBA Financial Aggregates publish on 29 May, then the RBA Cash Rate decision lands on 2 June, the first board meeting since the unemployment flip. On 3 June the ABS releases April Building Approvals, which will show whether last week's 17,703 print was noise or trend. The 4 June double-header brings Q1 National Accounts (GDP) and April Retail Trade, closing the loop on growth and the consumer in a single morning.