The good news is the Australian economy is just about to notch up another quarter of economic growth, now in the 29th year of its record-breaking expansion.

The bad news is that growth is just inching along — to the point where one leading economist has described the nation as "teetering on the edge of a recession".

The fear is that, if the economy slows further, unemployment will rise and that could set off a disastrous economic chain reaction that would swing the entire economy into reverse.

The latest September quarter economic growth — or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — figures out today are expected to show Australia remains on the edge.

The data include various aspects of the economy: consumption (what we spend at the shops), business investment, government spending and net exports (exports minus imports).

Many of the ingredients to GDP have already been announced, so forecasting the final result is a relatively straightforward exercise.

In the three months to the end of September, Australia recorded a seasonally adjusted $7.9-billion current account surplus, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. That's good economic news.

China's economy continues to expand at a very healthy pace and so demand for Australia's iron ore and LNG remains strong.

With a surge in exports, the Federal Government's coffers also grow and, for the moment, it's spending much of that windfall gain.

General government final consumption expenditure increased by $817 million, or 0.9 per cent, in the quarter, and is expected to contribute 0.2 percentage points to growth in the September quarter.

Again, that's good economic news.

But that's where the good news ends.

The rest of the GDP equation points to a very weak economy.

The official ABS data show Australian businesses are not in great shape.

The seasonally adjusted estimate for total new capital expenditure fell by 0.2 per cent in the September quarter 2019.

This follows a fall of 0.6 per cent in the June quarter.

The seasonally adjusted estimate for company gross operating profits also fell 0.8 per cent in the September quarter 2019.

"Business investment is really quite weak," EY chief economist Jo Masters said.

"It's been disappointing for some time now.

"Interest rates are very low, but we're just not seeing Australian businesses invest.

"I think that is a concern for growth, not just for today, but for the transition our economy has to make for the future."

Nervous consumers with high debts and low wage rises

That transition is partly dependent on the consumer spending more at shops around the country.

Despite record low interest rates and tax relief, highly indebted households are anxious about their finances.

Add job insecurity to that, and there's a big reluctance for consumers to part with their money.

National Australia Bank's chief economist Alan Oster said it worries him.

"You need to get more income into the consumer," he said.

"At present what you've got is a consumer that's scared and only spending on things they have to, you've got a slowdown in the construction industry, and business — for whatever reason — are basically not investing, and I don't really think they're going to invest anytime soon.

"So I see this pattern continuing for a while."

Unemployment fears lurking

Supporting Mr Oster's gloomy forecast for consumer spending and economic activity is data from ANZ on job advertisements.

Job ads fell 1.7 per cent in November. Over the year, they're now down 12.6 per cent.

The latest ABS job vacancy report (for August) also showed a decline in vacancies, down 1.3 per cent.

Analysis by the Centre for Future Work shows that, if the drop-off in job ads continues into next year, Australia's unemployment rate could climb above 6 per cent.

Research by National Australia Bank also points to rising unemployment.

The reason rising unemployment worries economists so much is that people without jobs find paying the mortgage extremely difficult and tend to spend less.

That puts huge pressure on the property market and on one of the sectors of the economy — consumption — that generally needs to keep growing to prevent Australia from slipping into recession.

The Centre for Future Work's Jim Stanford describes the economy as "teetering on the edge of a recession".

Mr Oster doesn't go that far, but he does concede that most of the economy is receding.

"80 per cent of the economy, which you and I live in, is going backwards," he said.

What he means by that is that areas like consumer spending and retail, building and construction and household incomes — the areas of the economy directly touching most people — are either going backwards or growing very weakly.

With economic growth, it's generally accepted, comes rising standards of living. So, the stronger the economic growth, the better off we should all feel.

The consensus among economists is that GDP will come in later today at 0.5 per cent in the September quarter, taking the annual pace of growth to roughly 1.7 per cent.

With population growth running at 1.6 per cent per annum, the average individual is essentially treading water.