Hear that? That’s the sound of the jobs market creaking, if not cracking.

Australia’s unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to a four-year high of 4.5% in September, up from 4.3% the month before.

Jim Chalmers is in Washington DC attending a G20 summit, but still found time to put out a statement reminding us that the jobless measure is “still very low by historical standards”. The IMF reckons the global economy remains ‘in flux’, but the Trump effect is real – and Australians aren’t fooled | Greg Jericho Read more

That’s a fair statement. Not counting the pandemic and its aftermath, you need to go back 17 years to find a lower jobless rate.

The jump in the share market after the data release pointed to firming bets that the Reserve Bank was now odds-on to deliver a rate cut at

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