Good news on the spending front but we’re not seeing great signs from the job market, with Artificial Intelligence starting to devour jobs.

While I hate undermining good economic news, it’s important to keep facts in perspective and adjust your enthusiasm for the revelation that Aussies are starting to spend more. News.com.au says “households are finding breathing room in their budgets” as spending numbers have been on the rise over the June quarter.

The June 0.5% lift in outlays on things like furniture, clothing and the like follows a 1% jump in May. Importantly, compared to June last year, the spending is 4.8% higher. Australians are having more confidence to spend. Undoubtedly, two rate cuts this year of 0.25% takes the cash rate of interest the RBA determines down by 0.5% to 3.85%.

RBA cash rate

But you must be careful when generalising about spending Australians because those people with big mortgages could still be banking the rate cut gains, while others who have no debt could be the ones loosening their belts and spending more.

On the plus side, the spending rise is good news for the overall economy, which has been in a slowdown for the past three years, thanks to the RBA rate rises.

Economic growth

However, if the economy is rebounding, it could mean that the RBA will be less generous with rate cuts going forward. And this might mean that those who aren’t spending because the high mortgage rates are still biting could be in line for less relief from potential rate cuts.

On top of that, we’re not seeing great signs from the job market, with job ads falling 1% in July, which follows only 2,000 jobs added in June and a loss of 1,100 positions in May. Over that time, unemployment has moved up from 4.1% to 4.3%.

Making the future economic waters even murkier for many younger Australians with mortgages is this news about the US job market from Goldman Sachs.

The investment bank’s researchers say AI is starting to kill jobs with signs of a hiring pullback in the technology sector, hitting younger employees there the hardest.

CNBC reports that unemployment rates among tech workers between 20 and 30 years old jumped by 3% since the start of this year. This US trend of AI taking jobs is bound to be something that employees with debts will need to be mindful of going forward.

But this AI threat has only just begun. “If AI researchers achieve AGI, or artificial general intelligence, that equals a person’s ability to learn and adapt across domains, instead of being narrowly deployed, the impact on workers would be more profound,” CNBC reported what the Goldman Sachs economist said.

One thing is clear: the economy the RBA needs to regulate with its interest rates and the economy employees work in will be more challenging. That economy is set to be a whole lot more complicated, such that good economic news might not apply to all Australians equally and carrying big mortgage debt when you’re in an AI-threatened job could be a huge risk to live with.