Australia's labour market has reached a quiet turning point, with unemployment rising to 4.5 percent in July — its highest since the pandemic — signalling that the long campaign against inflation is gradually reshaping the lives of working people. The Reserve Bank of Australia, which has spent years tightening monetary conditions to cool price pressures, now finds its own forecasts confirmed: the economy is softening, deliberately and by design. A further rate rise in September appears unlikely, though the central bank has not yet declared its work complete, watching still for the labour marke