Your money · Rates · 23 July
Don't bank on an August rate cut.
If you've been quietly hoping the Reserve Bank hands your customers a rate cut in a couple of weeks, this week's jobs figures just made that a lot less likely. The June labour force print landed on 23 July and it ran hot: 76,300 jobs added in a single month, unemployment holding steady at 4.4%, and more people than ever piling into the workforce. A jobs market that strong gives the RBA very little reason to cut when it meets on 11 August, which means the cash rate most likely sits where it is and borrowing stays expensive. That matters to you more than it looks, because most of your pipeline is financed work: the renos and new builds people take a loan out for. While money stays dear, those budgets stay cautious, and the job someone was "just waiting on the rate cut" to greenlight keeps waiting.
Do this: Don't build your spring cashflow around a cut that might not come. Lock your deposit in at contract, keep your progress claims tight and frequent so you're never carrying the client's cashflow, and if you were about to sign up for new equipment or vehicle finance, hold off until after the 11 August decision.
Source: ABS Labour Force, Australia — released 23 July 2026 ↗
Your pipeline · NSW · 23 July
519 homes just broke ground in Sydney. That's years of subbie work.
While private budgets sit on their hands waiting for a rate cut, the government just started digging. On 23 July, NSW broke ground on the next stage of the Midtown Macquarie Park precinct: 519 homes, 401 of them social housing, with the whole precinct set to hit around 3,300 homes and 1,100 social homes by the time it's done in 2029. It's funded through the state's $6.6 billion Building Homes for NSW program plus the federal Housing Australia Future Fund, so this isn't an announcement that quietly dies in a press release, it's shovels in the ground with years of money behind it. For a Sydney trade that matters, because government social-housing precincts are steady, milestone-paid work: civil, concrete, formwork, plumbing, electrical, fit-out, stage after stage, and it doesn't dry up the moment private reno demand wobbles.
Do this: If you're a Sydney trade, get your business onto the subbie lists for the builders running Midtown Macquarie Park now, while stage two is just starting. More broadly, register on the Homes NSW and Building Homes for NSW supplier panels. When private jobs slow, the government pipeline is where the reliable work sits, but only if you're on the list before the tenders close.
Source: NSW Government ministerial release — Building Homes for NSW, 23 July 2026 ↗