It's up to businesses to drive economic and employment growth, as the country moves away from its reliance on the mining investment boom, RBA governor Glenn Stevens says.
Figures showing a recent rise in the unemployment rate were "concerning", he said in a speech in Adelaide.
"The Bank's reading, which we have had for a while, is that the labour market has a degree of spare capacity, and that it will be a while before we see unemployment decline consistently," he said.
Ideally, the non-mining sectors of the economy would grow a bit above their long-run trend pace for a while, after having been below par recently.
"We may not be quite there yet, but we are I think slowly building a foundation for better performance," Mr Stevens said.
The best the RBA could do to help was to run an accommodative monetary policy - or low interest rates - not only to encourage borrowing but to spur a search by investors for higher yield.
However, while high interest rates can force people to borrow and spend less, low interest rates could not make them borrow and spend more, he said.
"They have to want to," Mr Stevens said.
Households had already built up their debt levels during the 1990 and 2000s, while governments were hampered by the need to tidy up their balance sheets and reducing borrowing, he said.
Household consumption spending could grow in line with incomes, or maybe a little faster, but the odds are against households driving growth as strongly as they did a decade ago, Mr Stevens said.
"That leaves the business sector," he said.
Mr Stevens acknowledged it wasn't business managers' jobs to drive growth "out of a public-spirited desire to help the economy", but at some point it would be in the interests of businesses to start investing more.
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