Let me first be very clear: We don't have an unemployment target; we have an inflation target. Our mandate is to control inflation.
We look at the labour market, really, through two lenses. The labour market is an important indicator of the degree of excess demand or excess supply in the economy. When I made those comments, the economy was clearly very overheated. The labour market was overheated. There were widespread reports from businesses that they couldn't find the labour they needed. Wage growth was picking up. Those are all signs that the labour market was out of balance.
Since then, the unemployment rate has risen from 5.1% to 6.1%. In practice, we look at a broad range of labour market indicators. On our website, we have this all laid out in quite some detail. You want to look at vacancy rates, the employment rates and the participation rates. You want to look at men, women and youth. When you look at them all together, what you see is a labour market that has certainly moved into better balance.
We're also starting to see wage growth—which has been too high, relative to productivity—start to moderate.
Those are all signs that inflationary pressures should be coming down.