The Australian dollar initially slipped around 0.3 cents on the release of the figures before regaining much of the lost ground. At 1pm AEDT, it is fetching around 79.62 US cents. Overnight, it had broken through 80 US cents to hit a four-month high.

Commonwealth Bank economist Gareth Aird described the figures as “phenomenal”. 

“The big lift in employment over December once again bettered consensus [15,000 + ] and once again the underlying detail was robust,” he said. 

The economy faces a tough ask maintaining the extraordinary rate of job creation, with the near 400,000 lift in 2017 unlikely to be recreated this year, as Australia’s population naturally constrains growth.

For policymakers the key test will be whether the run of full time jobs finally eventuates into wages growth which have been stuck at or below inflation at 1.8 per cent, making every day items more expensive for consumers. 

The stubbornly low rate of growth for wages threatens to undermine half-a-century of belief in the Phillips Curve, which suggests higher employment must eventually lead to higher wages, and is continuing to frustrate both the Turnbull government and the Reserve Bank. 

The market has pencilled in only a 50-50 chance of the Reserve Bank raising rates from their record lows by August, with that contingent on inflation rising back to within the RBA’s target of 2-3 per cent on the back of wages showing some signs of life.