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HEALTH-VIRUS-AUSTRALIA-ECONOMY-UNEMPLOYMENT
Australia ends pandemic wage subsidy despite job loss warnings
SYDNEY, March 28, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Australia on Sunday ended a pandemic
wage subsidy scheme despite official warnings that up to 150,000 people could
lose their jobs as a result.
The so-called JobKeeper scheme, which initially saw Aus$1,500 (around
US$1,150) a fortnight paid to staff via their employers, was announced last
March after Australia imposed a nationwide shutdown that left thousands
queueing outside unemployment offices.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the programme had been an “economic
lifeline” that has achieved the aim “of saving lives and saving livelihoods”
over the past year.
He told reporters in Melbourne there was “no doubt that there will be some
businesses that will continue to do it tough” but the subsidies were always
designed to be “temporary”.
Australia’s unemployment rate fell to 5.8 percent in February — down from
7.5 percent in July — but the Treasury estimates between 100,000 and 150,000
jobs could be lost as a result of the change.
Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil said many more
workers were likely to see their hours and pay slashed.
“1.1 million workers face an uncertain future without the JobKeeper wage
subsidy, which has prevented catastrophic job losses during the pandemic and
is now being ripped away,” she said.
“Cutting off JobKeeper while so many workers are still reliant on it is
both cruel and counter-productive to our economic recovery.”
At the height of the crisis, the scheme was supporting almost four million
jobs.
Officials twice extended the programme over the past 12 months, albeit at
lower rates as the spread of Covid-19 was brought under control and the
economy began to recover.
Australia has been relatively successful in managing the coronavirus —
recording roughly 29,000 cases and less than 1,000 deaths to date — with
recent outbreaks linked to border quarantine facilities generally being
quashed quickly.
Its economy tipped into recession in the first half of 2020 but grew 3.1
percent in the September-December quarter.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0943 hrs