Each government department goes under the spotlight at these hearings to justify government spending and budget programs and any developments in their broader responsibilities.

While Treasury's program for the hearing in front of the Senate's economics committee on Wednesday is yet to be finalised, it would normally be led by the appearance of Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy.

Of interest will be Treasury's current thinking on the growth and jobs outlook given the economy has rebounded way beyond expectations that were predicted in the mid-year budget review handed down in December.

In particular, the unemployment rate was expected to reach 7.5 per cent in the March quarter.

Instead, last week's jobs figures showed the unemployment rate unexpectedly tumbled to 5.8 per cent, and there are now more people employed in the economy than before the pandemic sent the country reeling into recession.

The drop in unemployment is significant because the government has pledged to commence budget repair once the jobless rate was below six per cent.

However, both Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Finance Minister Simon Birmingham say the decline is yet to prove sustainable.

Even so, avid budget watcher Chris Richardson said the target of six per cent for budget repair to commence seemed ambitious at the time, but now it is not ambitious enough.

"We have a Reserve Bank aiming for full employment, which they seem to think is 4.5 per cent or perhaps below, and we have a government aiming comfortably below six," Mr Richardson, an economist at Deloitte Access Economics, told AAP.

"That does need to change and it does make sense for the government to move. Theirs was the right target for the time, but the success has been so striking that they need to update the target and make it more ambitious."

Some might argue that budget repair has already started with the removal of the JobKeeper wage subsidy and a further winding back of the JobSeeker dole payment at the end of this month.

There are concerns the demise of JobKeeper could see the unemployment rate tick-up again and put a restraint on retail spending.

Consumer confidence - a pointer to household spending - slipped last week due to concerns over the fate of JobKeeper.

The weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence gauge will be updated on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Australian shares look set for a soft opening on Monday after Wall Street stocks were mostly lower on Friday, led by falls among banks.

The focus again switched to the 10-year US Treasury yield - which influences mortgage interest rates and other consumer loans - as it inched towards its highest level since January.

The S&P 500 lost 0.1 per cent to 3,913.10 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7 per cent to 32,627.97, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.8 per cent to 13,215.24.

The Australian market looks set to extend last week's loses with share futures down 15 points at 6661.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark index closed 0.6 per cent lower at 6708.2 on Friday.

Australian Associated Press