Graph 11  Housing Mortgage Payments Quarterly; share of household disposable income %  Scheduled payments % projections 12  12 10  Historical estimate  10  8  8  6  6  4  4  2  2  0  2006 Interest  2010  2014  Scheduled principal  2018  2022  0 2026  Extra payments  Sources: ABS; APRA; RBA  Turning now to the labour market, the recent data suggest that conditions remain tight, although the rapid pace of hiring in some sectors last year has slowed.
The number of job vacancies is still very high and many firms in the Bank’s liaison program are reporting that they are planning to increase headcount further (Graph 12). Notwithstanding this, in January employment declined by 11,500 and the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.7 per cent. Our interpretation is that this decline in employment largely reflects changing seasonal patterns in hiring.