Received

A softer-than-expected jobs report suggests Australia's labour market is starting to loosen and may take some pressure off the central bank's aggressive interest rate hikes.

The official unemployment rate lifted from 3.5 per cent to 3.7 per cent in January, returning to its highest point in nine months.

About 11,500 jobs were lost from the economy, Australian Bureau of Statistics jobs data showed, the second month in a row of falling employment.

The participation rate fell 0.1 percentage point to 66.5 per cent.

The jobless rate has been hovering in the mid-threes due to strong demand for workers and economists expected another robust report in January.

Markets anticipated another 20,000 jobs to be added and unemployment to hold firm at 3.5 per cent.

Despite evidence of weakening, seasonal factors fed into the elevated data.

The ABS noted there was a larger number of people than usual "waiting to start work" and attached to a job in some way, which means they were not yet counted as employed.

BIS Oxford Economics head of macroeconomic forecasting Sean Langcake said this would likely boost employment and weigh on unemployment in the February data.

However, he said the slowing in employment growth should be expected given the sustained tightness in the labour market.

"Consecutive falls in employment suggest conditions may be turning," he said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the softening numbers were consistent with his expectations of a slowing economy.

"This is the expected consequence of global turbulence and rising interest rates playing out in our economy," Dr Chalmers said.

He said the unemployment rate was still near record lows and the strong jobs market would help insulate the economy from global challenges.

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said the uptick in unemployment and persistently high inflation was an "ominous" sign.

"The last time we saw an extreme version of this known as stagflation - stubbornly persistent inflation alongside job losses and unemployment - was back in 1970," he said.

For the Reserve Bank, jobs data is watched closely because of the relationship between the tight labour market and higher wages, which can feed into inflation.

Mr Langcake said the January figures did not provide conclusive evidence of a cooling market, which would take pressure off wages.

"But it is clear the market is tracking sideways, albeit in a very tight position."

RBA governor Philip Lowe will likely comment on the significance of the statistics at a parliamentary hearing on Friday.

CommSec economist Craig James said the upcoming wage price index, due next week, would offer more insight.

"If wages rise by one per cent or less for the quarter that would allay concerns about a possible ramp up of wage pressures and therefore price pressures," he said.

© AAP 2023

Australia will establish a Pacific visa lottery scheme to boost the number of permanent migrant workers and strengthen relations with the region.

From July, 3000 places a year will become available for eligible participants from Pacific nations and East Timor to be randomly selected and given the opportunity to apply for a permanent Australian visa.

The proposal mirrors the United States "green card" system in which random applicants are given work rights and a citizenship pathway.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles unveiled the proposal on Thursday, saying it would boost permanent migration from the Pacific to Australia and "build a stronger Pacific family".

Successful applicants will be able to bring their dependent family on the visa and live anywhere in Australia if they have secured a job offer and passed health, character and basic English tests.

Applicants also need to be aged between 18 and 45 years old.

The extra places are in addition to Australia's overall annual migration program, which will not be impacted by the scheme.

Mr Giles said the ballot could be adapted in future for other temporary and permanent migration programs to promote equitable and fair access to visa schemes.

"These reforms demonstrate to the Australian community and to our Pacific family that stronger Pacific partnerships focused on shared needs and priorities ... support stability, prosperity and security in our region," he said.

Pacific Minister Pat Conroy said the scheme was "revolutionary" and would boost ties with the region.

"This is about permanent migration, allocating 3000 spots to Pacific families each year to make a new life in Australia," he told ABC News.

"(It will) deepen the Pacific diaspora in Australia and deepen our people-to-people links."

Opposition home affairs spokeswoman Karen Andrews said there was a critical shortage of skilled and unskilled workers.

"I am open to looking at whatever solutions the government actually has," she said.

© AAP 2023

Raquel Welch, whose emergence from the sea in a skimpy, furry bikini in the film One Million Years B.C. would propel her to international sex symbol status throughout the 1960s and '70s, has died. She was 82.

Welch died on Wednesday after a brief illness, according to her agent, Stephen LaManna of the talent agency Innovative Artists.

Welch's breakthrough came in 1966's campy prehistoric flick One Million Years B.C., despite having a grand total of three lines. Clad in a brown doeskin bikini, she successfully evaded pterodactyls but not the notice of the public.

"I just thought it was a goofy dinosaur epic we'd be able to sweep under the carpet one day," she told The Associated Press in 1981.

"Wrong. It turned out that I was the Bo Derek of the season, the lady in the loin cloth about whom everyone said, 'My God, what a bod' and they expected to disappear overnight."

She did not, playing Lust for the comedy team of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in their film Bedazzled in 1967 and playing a secret agent in the sexy spy spoof Fathom that same year.

Her curves and beauty captured pop culture attention, with Playboy crowning her the "most desired woman" of the 70s, despite never being completely naked in the magazine. In 2013, she graced the No. 2 spot on Men's Health's Hottest Women of All Time list.

In the film The Shawshank Redemption, a poster of Welch covers an escape tunnel -- the last of three that character Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) used after Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe.

In addition to acting, Welch was a singer and dancer. She surprised many critics -- and won positive reviews -- when she starred in the 1981 musical Woman Of The Year on Broadway, replacing a vacationing Lauren Bacall. She returned to the Great White Way in 1997 in Victor/Victoria.

She knew that some people didn't take her seriously because of her glamorous image.

"I'm not Penny Marshall or Barbra Streisand," she told the AP in 1993.

"They'll say, 'Raquel Welch wants to direct? Give me a break."'

Welch was born Jo-Raquel Tejada in Chicago and raised in La Jolla, California. She was a divorced mother when she met former actor turned press agent, Patrick Curtis.

"The irony of it all is that even though people thought of me as a sex symbol, in reality I was a single mother of two small children!" she wrote in her autobiography, Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage.

Curtis became her manager and second husband and helped shape her into a glamor-girl with hundreds of magazine covers and a string of movies, plus exercise videos and books like The Raquel Welch Total Beauty and Fitness Program.

Though she would appear in exploitative films, she also surprised many in the industry with fine performances, including in Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers, which earned her a Golden Globe, and opposite James Coco in Wild Party.

She was also nominated for a Globe in 1988 for the TV movie Right To Die. She played herself and mocked divas in an episode of Seinfeld, memorably attacking Elaine and rattling Kramer.

Married and divorced four times, she is survived by two children, Damon Welch and Tahnee Welch, who also became an actress, including landing a featured role in 1985's Cocoon.

© RAW 2023