ABS
Women hold more than 50% of all jobs in Australia
Women now hold 50.2 per cent of Australian filled jobs. But men still hold more main jobs — the difference is explained by women’s much greater share of secondary employment.
Benchmark Analytics
Independent economic and financial services analysis
Original analysis of new Australian economic and financial-services data.
Latest analysis
Investors now demand more than 5% to lend to the US Government for 30 years
Something unusual is happening in the world's most important bond market.
Investors now demand more than 5% a year to lend money to the US Government for 30 years, with the 30-year Treasury yield recently reaching its highest level in almost two decades.
A Treasury bond is
Jim Chalmers has a fair criticism of Qld Government
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers is hardly a neutral observer of Queensland politics, but on the state's finances he has a point.
Queensland is reportedly on the brink of another S&P credit-rating downgrade. Chalmers described the prospect as “very troubling”, arguing that Queensland's fiscal
Montetary Policy
Snapshot of central bank policy interest rates
Central banks are moving in markedly different directions. Australia has raised its policy rate by 0.75 percentage points over the past year, while the US has cut by the same amount.
Labour Market
Australia’s industrial strikes have not disappeared — but they have collapsed
Australia’s industrial disputes data show a recent lift in activity, but the deeper story is the extraordinary long-run decline in strikes and working days lost since the 1980s.
Benchmark Indicators
Australian economy at a glance
Political Data Alerts
Know what the new data means.
Priority monitoring and rapid analysis of the releases that matter to government relations, corporate affairs and policy teams.
More analysis
Australia’s governments do not have a revenue problem. They have a spending addiction.
New ABS Government Finance Statistics show total government revenue increased by 6.6% in 2025–26, adding $66.5 billion to government coffers. Tax revenue grew even faster, rising 7.0%.
Yet government expenses increased by 8.2%, or $84.4 billion.
The result was a net operating deficit of
Australian Housing Approvals
Housing approvals still below 1.2 million-home target pace
Australia’s housing approval pipeline is recovering, but the latest ABS figures show approvals are still running about 8% below the annual pace implied by the National Housing Accord target.
ANZ
ANZ under Nuno Matos: growth remains a work in progress
ANZ has kept pace with the major banks in investor housing under Nuno Matos, but APRA data show weaker relative growth across business lending, owner-occupied mortgages and deposits.
NAB
NAB under Andrew Irvine: business banking strong, investor housing the weak spot
More than two years into Andrew Irvine’s tenure, NAB is outperforming the banking system in business lending but losing ground in investor mortgages.
Westpac
Westpac under Anthony Miller: business growth strong, housing still lagging
Westpac is growing strongly in business lending and deposits under CEO Anthony Miller, but APRA data show it continues to lose relative ground in housing.
Strong growth in instant payments - NPP
Australia’s payments transformation continues, with rapid growth in real-time NPP transfers, rising card spending, fewer ATM withdrawals and another sharp fall in cheque use.
The Productivity Commission just updated its dashboard - not good
The Productivity Commission’s latest dashboard shows whole-economy labour productivity fell 0.2% over the year to June 2026. Labour productivity measures the amount of economic output produced for each hour worked.
More concerning is the longer-term result. Over the past five years, Australian labour productivity has declined
United States
US gas prices remain above $4 with 58 days to midterms
US regular gasoline remains above $4 a gallon. With 58 days until the midterms, prices are 33% above their level immediately before the 2024 election.