Employment growth has slowed through the year. Pickering said that after increasing employment by 14,900 in September, Australia added 116,000 jobs in the first nine months of 2025 compared with 323,000 over the same period last year. He described this as evidence that “labour market conditions continue to cool,” and said “the Reserve Bank would be foolish not to cut rates when they meet in November.” However, he noted that vacancy indicators such as ANZ-Indeed Job Ads and ABS Job Vacancies remained positive, describing a current disconnect between “mediocre employment gains and ongoing strength in vacancies.”
