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Britain's Prince William has taken a thinly veiled swipe at the billionaires embroiled in a space tourism race, saying the world's greatest brains should instead be focused on solving the environmental problems facing the Earth.

During a BBC interview aired on Thursday, William appeared to criticise Jeff Bezos, the world's richest person, Elon Musk and Briton Richard Branson, whose rival ventures are all vying to usher in a new era of private commercial space travel.

"We need some of the world's greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live," William said of the space race.

His comments come after Musk has spoken about missions to Mars, and Bezos described his inaugural space flight in July as part of building a road to space "so that our kids and their kids can build a future".

"We need to do that to solve the problems here on Earth," said Bezos, who on Wednesday celebrated sending Star Trek actor William Shatner into space in his New Shepard spacecraft.

Speaking out on green issues has become a major feature of the British royal family, and William, 39, is following in the footsteps of his late grandfather Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth's husband, and his father, Prince Charles.

Charles, the 72-year-old heir to the throne, has for decades called for action to stop climate change and environmental damage, long before the issue became mainstream, often facing ridicule along the way.

"It's been a hard road for him. He's had a really rough ride on that, and I think he's been proven to being well ahead of the curve," William said.

"But it shouldn't be that there's a third generation now coming along having to ramp it up even more. For me, it would be an absolute disaster if George (his eldest child) is sat here ... in like 30 years' time whatever, still saying the same thing, because by then we will be too late."

In an echo of his father's message earlier this week, William also said the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference COP26 summit in Scotland had to deliver.

"We can't have more clever speak, clever words but not enough action," William said.

The prince's personal response to the issue has been to create the Earthshot Prize, which aims to find solutions through new technologies or policies to the planet's biggest environmental problems.

The first five winners, who will each collect STG1 million ($A1.85 million), will be announced at a ceremony on Sunday.

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Thunderstorms lashing NSW have seen hailstones larger than five centimetres fall and even a tornado warning issued.

The storms were most intense over Sydney and the Lower Hunter, but hail was reported all the way between Sydney and Cowra in the state's central west.

Those stones mostly measured between three and five centimetres, but some were even larger.

The conditions over western Sydney were particularly serious, with meteorologists seeing all the ingredients for a "very, very dangerous supercell", said the Bureau of Meteorology's Gabrielle Woodhouse.

About 4.30pm, the bureau issued a warning for a possible tornado over western Sydney.

It's not yet known whether an apparent funnel cloud touched the ground or not.

Ms Woodhouse said the storm was "really dangerous".

Some 33mm of rain fell at Woodville Golf Course at Canterbury in about a quarter of an hour.

By Saturday evening, the most dangerous storm had passed out to sea, but the bureau is still warning of threatening storms in the Sydney area and advises residents to monitor the radar on its website.

Early-morning thunderstorms deposited up to 30mm on parts of Canberra, with more likely Thursday evening.

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More than a quarter of million jobs have been lost in Australia in the past two months as a result of coronavirus lockdowns in NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

New figures show the number of people in employment in September alone fell by 138,000.

"The numbers tell us that the pandemic continues to impact the workforce extensively and this impact will continue whilst lockdowns are enforced," Employment Minister Stuart Robert told reporters on Thursday.

But he expects stronger employment results in November and December as states come out of lockdown, as seen in the past.

NSW eased restrictions on Monday, the ACT is reopening on Friday and Victoria is set to emerge from lockdown later this month.

Even so, shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government wanted to withdraw economic support while the unemployment rate rose.

"This government wants to pull the rug out from under small businesses and workers at the same time as hundreds of thousands of Australians either lost their job or gave up looking for work," he told reporters.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.6 per cent in September, having unexpectedly eased to a near 13-year low of 4.5 per cent in August as a result of people giving up searching for work.

"The low national unemployment rate continues to reflect reduced participation during the recent lockdowns, rather than strong labour market conditions," Australian Bureau of Statistics head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said.

The participation rate of those in work or seeking employment fell further in September to 64.5 per cent, from 65.2 per cent.

"This was the third consecutive monthly decline from the near historic high of 66.2 per cent in June 2021 and continued the pattern of large falls in participation during lockdowns," Mr Jarvis said.

The number of hours worked rose by 15 million or 0.9 per cent, a slight recovery after a large 3.7 per cent fall in August.

However, there are now 111,000 fewer people employed and two per cent fewer hours being worked than in March 2020 and before the pandemic.

BIS Oxford Economics chief economist Sarah Hunter said there was unlikely to be a material improvement in jobs data until the November figures.

"Notwithstanding the capacity for a robust recovery in the economy, it is likely to be well into 2022 before the labour market fully recovers," Dr Hunter said.

Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor Guy Debelle indicated the central bank is not about to follow other central banks into tightening monetary policy.

Last week, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand lifted its key interest rate, while the US Federal Reserve is mulling whether to pull back on its stimulus.

"The circumstances here in Australia ... both wages and inflation, are quite different from those we are seeing in other countries," Dr Debelle told an online conference.

Australia went into the pandemic with persistently low wage outcomes - much lower than what was being seen in comparable countries.

"COVID hasn't changed that picture," Dr Debelle told the CFA Australia Investment Conference.

"Yes, there are a few pockets of heightened wage pressures, but it's not widespread."

Similarly, he said inflation in Australia is not quite experiencing some of the energy issues that have been seen elsewhere in the world, and prices have yet to reflect the impact from supply chain disruptions.

The RBA has persistently said it will not lift the cash rate until inflation is sustainably within the two to three per cent inflation target, a condition it does expect to met before 2024.

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Australia's unemployment rate ticked up to 4.6 per cent in September as a further 138,000 jobs were lost due to lockdowns in NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

The jobless rate had unexpectedly eased to a near-13-year low of 4.5 per cent in August as a result of people giving up searching for work.

The participation rate of those in work or seeking employment fell further in September to 64.5 per cent, from 65.2 per cent.

The number of hours worked rose by 15 million or 0.9 per cent.

"Extended lockdowns in New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory have seen employment and hours worked both drop back below their pre-pandemic levels," Australian Bureau of Statistics head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said.

In September, there were 111,000 fewer employed people and two per cent fewer hours worked than in March 2020.

"The low national unemployment rate continues to reflect reduced participation during the recent lockdowns, rather than strong labour market conditions," Mr Jarvis said.

Earlier, Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor Guy Debelle said the central bank was not seeing any material changes in wages or inflation that would pave the way for a tightening of monetary policy.

Last week, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand lifted its key interest rate, while the US Federal Reserve is mulling whether to pull back on its stimulus.

"The circumstances here in Australia ... both wages and inflation, are quite different from those we are seeing in other countries," Dr Debelle told an online conference on Thursday.

Australia went into the pandemic with persistently low wage outcomes - much lower than what was being seen in comparable countries.

"COVID hasn't changed that picture. The story on the wage front hasn't really changed in any material way," he told the CFA Australia Investment Conference.

"Yes, there are a few pockets of heightened wage pressures, but it's not widespread."

Similarly, on inflation, he said Australia is not quite experiencing some of the energy issues that have been seen elsewhere in the world, although that is flowing through to the oil price.

And there had not yet been much impact from supply chain disruptions feeding into prices.

The RBA has persistently said it will not lift the cash rate until inflation is sustainably within the two to three per cent inflation target.

It would need to see wages growth of three per cent, compared with 1.7 per cent currently.

It does not expect these conditions to be met before 2024.

© AAP 2021