The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the Labour Force data for October 2010. As usual the bank economists got it wrong predicting the unemployment rate would drop to 5 per cent. In fact it rose from 5.1 per cent to 5.4 per cent because employment growth was too weak to match the expansion of the labour force. Further, employment growth fell this month and full-time employment declined. The only reason there was any employment growth was courtesy of the expansion of part-time employment. Finally, some of the bank economists recognised today (in their comments) that business conditions are easing. The previous rhetoric about an economy exploding at the seams now seems very wan indeed. There is no jobs boom going on at present. The mining states are showing deteriorating labour conditions (falling participation and rising unemployment). The data definitely doesn’t support the claims by the Government and the RBA that there is an inflation threat building. There is still plenty of slack in the Australian labour market and last month the degree of slack rose sharply.