Press Conference,

JOURNALIST: What will the RBA will make of these numbers. How do you sort of, when communicating jobs figures, weigh up the resilience of the jobs market and the chance of a rate [indistinct]?

AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS:    Look, I would say firstly having a job is critically important. It allows you to put food on your table and look after your family. So, having a job and being able to have access to a job is critically important. When it comes to the figures today, I would say that there has been no change in the unemployment rate from December to January along with the participation rate. This would suggest that while the RBA makes its own independent decisions, in these figures today, I don't expect that there's any surprises for the RBA in terms of our jobs market.

JOURNALIST:    Minister, you mentioned the softening in youth unemployment and underemployment. What do you attribute to that?

AMANDA RISHWORTH:    Well, look, often, youth unemployment is the first indicator to suggest there is some modest softening of the labour market. I'll put it into context. It went from 9.1 to 9.5. So it is a modest softening. But often, it is as expected, both in those underemployment figures and the youth unemployment, often a first indicator of any softening in the labour market.

JOURNALIST:    And what does it say though about young people trying to find jobs?

AMANDA RISHWORTH:    Well, I would say that despite the very modest softening in these numbers, youth unemployment is still low. We have a youth unemployment number at 9.5 per cent. That indicates still a relatively low youth unemployment, which means that many young people still have the opportunity to get jobs. Of course, we are always looking as a government about how we can best support young people into jobs. Whether it's our Free TAFE, whether it's our investment in education, we're always looking to make sure that young people do have the skills they need to get into employment. Of course, what we're seeing today is a very modest softening, and it is in line with both economic forecasts and financial markets’ expectations.

JOURNALIST:    We saw yesterday that real wages are going backwards. Do Australian workers have any hope of getting ahead this year?

AMANDA RISHWORTH:    Well, first, I would say that having a job is very important, and the figures today show that we still have a strong jobs market. When it comes to wages, our Government has been very focused on getting wages moving, and what we've seen is eight consecutive quarters of annualised real wages growth. Of course, we know that inflation has ticked up, and we are very focused on inflation. 

I would note that wages, of course, are set on a medium-term basis, whether it's through enterprise agreements or the annualised wage increase. Of course, we have seen inflation tick up as a result of a range of factors including temporary factors. So, as the Treasury forecast and the RBA forecast, we're expecting to see real wages growth return in ‘26, ‘27.

JOURNALIST:    And just finally, was the NAB boss right or wrong when he warned that this could be good as it gets for the Australian economy?

AMANDA RISHWORTH:    Well I haven't seen those comments. What I would say though is our Government has been very much focused on making sure that the Australian people can get a job, that they can get – that we get wages moving again. Our focus has been on making sure that people can enjoy life and of course get the support they need. Of course, we know that people are doing it tough, and we want to make sure that we're doing everything we can as a government to support them.

JOURNALIST:    Beautiful, Minister. That's all from me.

AMANDA RISHWORTH:    Thank you.