Jobs or more hours for half-a-million workers. That's what it will take to get wages returning to their norms of a decade ago. It's a big ask. So much so the Reserve Bank has made it explicit.

It has ditched the round-about calls to make "progress in reducing unemployment" and made "full employment" the target. Governor Philip Lowe mentioned it twice in his final paragraph announcing the RBA's decision to cut rates to a new record low of 0.75 per cent on Tuesday.

In the Reserve's world that just about amounts to "forward guidance", otherwise known as we will keep cutting interest rates and consider pumping money into the economy until we hit it.

To put the scale of the challenge in perspective, the Abbott government made creating 1 million jobs over five years an election campaign promise. It delivered, but wages growth remains stuck at close to historic lows and the unemployment rate is rising.