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Rapid-fire interest rate hikes are yet to make a dent in Australia's highly competitive jobs market.

Official employment numbers due on Thursday are expected to show ongoing resilience because it takes time for rate increases to slow demand and lessen the need for workers.

In May the jobless rate tightened again to 3.6 per cent, from 3.7 per cent in April, with 76,000 jobs added to the economy.

Westpac is expecting unemployment to hang on at 3.6 per cent for June, while CBA is anticipating it to inch higher to 3.7 per cent.

Forward-looking indicators point to a weaker jobs market, with vacancies down 10 per cent from their peak in the second quarter.

While coming off their heights, job vacancies are still almost double their pre-COVID levels.

NAB's latest forecasts have employment growth slipping over the second half of the year as the economy slows, with the jobless rate tipped to hit five per cent by the end of 2024.

This would constitute a "serious rise", but no higher than before the pandemic.

Signs of softening in the labour market will be welcome by the Reserve Bank, which is hoping to keep wages growing sustainably but not enough to jeopardise the task of bringing inflation back to target.

A forward-looking indicator of wage movements, Seek's advertised salary index, signalled a slower pace of annual growth.

The index still grew a robust 4.5 per cent in the year to June, but was down from 4.7 per cent in May.

Seek senior economist Matt Cowgill said the slowdown in annual terms reflected a slight cooling in the jobs market.

"This suggests that a spiral between prices and wages is not currently occurring," he said.

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Australia has recorded a steady decline in rates of HIV over the past decade and could be on track to virtually eliminate the insidious disease.

A slower reduction among some groups and a high rate of late detections are still troubling experts, however, with 44 per cent of patients living unknowingly with the disease for four or more years.

Figures released by the Kirby Institute on Thursday show a 46 per cent fall in new Australian HIV cases in the past decade, with 555 recorded in 2022 compared to a total of 1037 in 2013.

Australia's rate of decline is among the best in the world, in line with other leading countries in northern Europe, and well ahead of rates in the US and Canada.

A "virtual" elimination does not mean zero new cases of HIV, but an absence of sustained endemic community transmission.

Brisbane is hosting the International AIDS Society conference on HIV this weekend, bringing together scientists, policy makers and advocates.

Sharon Lewin, the society's president and director of the Peter Doherty Institute, said Australia has maintained a progressive approach to HIV since the very beginning of the pandemic in the early 1980s.

"Australia is poised to be one of the first, if not the first, countries to achieve virtual elimination of HIV," Dr Lewin said.

Gay and bisexual men still make up the majority of HIV diagnoses but now represent a smaller portion, accounting for 57 per cent of new cases last year compared with 79 per cent in 2013.

Andrew Grulich, who heads the Kirby Institute's HIV epidemiology and prevention program, said the group could be virtually HIV-free within the next three to five years.

"We have a trendline which if continued out into the future would lead to a 90 per cent reduction of incidence - which is what the (United Nations AIDS/HIV program) defines as the end of AIDS as a public health threat," Professor Grulich said.

The groups showing the slowest reduction in HIV rates in Australia are people born overseas and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders accounted for 25 HIV cases in 2022, increasing from 17 cases the year before.

Rates among overseas-born gay and bisexual men have remained steady up until around 2020 when they started to decline following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prof Grulich said one of the reasons for this is heightened levels of stigma against HIV and homosexuality stemming from some home countries.

"You have to address issues of equity," he said.

"If you don't have equity you will always get this insidious disease finding marginalised populations."

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The Commonwealth Games could return to the United Kingdom, with Scotland weighing up the cost after Victoria dumped the event because it was too expensive.

State Premier Daniel Andrews put the price tag to run the 2026 event in regional Victoria at up to $7 billion, more than double the initial estimate of $2.6b.

Every other Australian state and territory has rejected calls to replace Victoria, promoting the Commonwealth Games Federation to flag that it's open to discussions with any member nations interested in taking it on.

Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf said he would investigate what might be possible.

"I have noted the comments from others that Scotland could look to be part of something bigger, part of a multi-city, multi-country host," Mr Yousaf told STV News.

"I've asked my team to explore whether that's a possibility or not, but it may be difficult, but let's see what the art of the possible is."

Scotland has hosted the Commonwealth Games on three occasions, twice in Edinburgh in 1970 and 1986, and most recently in Glasgow in 2014.

Former Queensland premier and chairman of the state's 2018 Gold Coast Games, Peter Beattie, suggested 2022 host Birmingham was the only viable option outside of Australia.

"I hope the Commonwealth Games survive," he told ABC News.

"There's only one hope in my view for the future of this Commonwealth Games in '26 - go back to Birmingham."

Mr Andrews refused to be drawn on suggestions that the UK permanently host the Games.

"That's a matter for organisers," Mr Andrews said on Wednesday.

The cost of Victoria running the Games was fiercely disputed by organisers who claimed the government ignored options such as moving the event to Melbourne.

But doing that would still have cost $4b, Mr Andrews said.

Victorian Liberal senator Jane Hume said the state government had mishandled the situation.

"This is because Victoria is broke - we are a failed state and it's because of the incompetence of this government," she told Seven's Sunrise program.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said his state was not in a position to host due to record debt and a need to follow through on election promises.

South Australia, the ACT, Tasmania, WA and the Northern Territory also ruled out taking on hosting duties due to cost issues.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was focused on the 2032 Olympic Games.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was shocked by the 2026 cancellation before quickly allaying fears about the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

"The planning is well underway there," he told Sydney radio station 2GB.

"Everyone's looking forward to the Brisbane Olympics - they will be a very big deal."

But Mr Albanese said he was disappointed for the Australian athletes who wouldn't get to compete in the Commonwealth Games at home.

"Obviously, it's not something that we were anticipating, given that it's been in the wind for some time," he said.

Victoria was the only bidder for the 2026 Games, with five regional cities originally slated to host sporting events.

The state government had promised to pump $2b into the regions in housing, infrastructure and tourism spending.

It's the second time a Games host has dropped out in recent years, after the South African city of Durban lost the 2022 event and Birmingham had to step in and take over.

The last time a Commonwealth Games was completely cancelled was during World War II.

With PA

© AAP 2023