Does a rise in unemployment mean Adrian Orr had a good day?

Did he say to himself the rate rises are working, this thing might not be as big a cluster as we had imagined.

Or, did he look at those wage increases and freak out and think, ‘My god the cash rate can’t top out at 3.9’?

Explain to me how there are more unemployed people, how did that happen?

How can you not have a job when there are jobs all around you?

How can there be more people without a job this morning when there are jobs galore in every industry every sector every part of the economy?

How can employer, after sector, after industry all say the same thing ,they can’t get people ,they can’t pay enough, they advertise for months on end with no results.

And yet, you and I the tax payer are forking out for another 2000 that allegedly lost their jobs between yesterday’s stats and the previous ones.

The underutilised figure is more sensible, that went down .

There are fewer people wanting more work as opposed to merely just wanting a job.

Pay is up, but not nearly as high as inflation is, so we are all going backwards.

But this is one of those weird stats I can’t blame the experts for; everyone said the unemployment rate would drop, and why wouldn’t they, every second shop window tells you about the work that isn’t being done.

And yet, 3.2 goes to 3.3.

This, from Adrian’s point of view, is good. A bit of slack in the labour market is what he is after.

He wants us to stop spending, wants the mad wage increases to stop, wants to slow us down to the point where the prices start to fall , where those with warehouses full of stock have to discount them out the door, he won’t say it but a recession  would suit him down to the ground.

He officially would like a soft landing, but it ain’t going to happen.

But if you ever scratched your head about the economy and what you thought was happening, then it’s these sorts of stats that do your head in.

Obviously there is a massive mismatch; the jobs on offer aren’t the ones those who lost their job want.

Unless of course they are and welfare now is such a soft option more people simply can’t be bothered, I wouldn’t rule that out.

But a country with no growth, in part because the jobs aren’t getting done, seeing more people lose their job doesn’t make sense and isn’t good for anyone.