Today’s jobs data ramps up the urgent need for a rates cut when the Reserve Bank of Australia meets next month.

The ACTU warns that the current push by Coalition members to cut superannuation will cost the average 30-year-old worker around $165,000 in retirement income.

Employers can face jail time or fines of up to $7.85 million under new laws criminalising wage theft that come into operation today, after a long union campaign.

Today’s inflation figures offer further signs of a clear pathway for the Reserve Bank of Australia to start cutting official interest rates at its first policy meeting in February.