Walker Hill Group

JobKeeper’s end and Jobs Lost – but it isn’t all bad news

Treasury has reported the loss of approximately 56,000 jobs nationwide in the wake of JobKeeper’s End, but don’t go classing 2021 “the new 2020” yet. 

Treasury secretary Dr. Steven Kennedy reported that 40,000 former JobKeeper workers lost employment in the first two weeks of the end of the $90 billion wage subsidy program, with industries like hospitality, technical services and Health care in particular taking hits (down 3.8 per cent, 2.8 per cent and 2.0 per cent compared to earlier this year). 

However, Kennedy told Accountants Daily that “it’s worth remembering that around 400,000 people move into and out of employment in a normal month and we would expect many of those who lost employment at the end of JobKeeper to regain employment in coming weeks.”

Surprisingly, JobKeeper’s expiry was described by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) as having no “discernible impact” on employment between March and April.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the new figures show that the Morrison government’s economic plan is working. 

“Beating market expectations, today unemployment fell to 5.5 per cent. This is the seventh consecutive month where unemployment has fallen. Underemployment has fallen to its lowest level in seven years,” Frydenberg told Accountants Daily

The figures, revealed by Single Touch Payroll data, were well below the anticipated 100,000 to 150,000 job losses predicted by both the Treasury and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia back in March, with Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics, noting that The unemployment rate is now above what it was at the start of the pandemic.

Though changes in payroll jobs continued to vary by industry, payroll jobs remain above pre-pandemic levels across all states and territories, with a 0.7 per cent increase in Queensland. 

“Since the end of March 2021, there were increases in payroll jobs for two of the five largest employing industries; Education and training and Retail trade (up 0.9 per cent and 0.4 per cent),” Mr Jarvis said.

We asked Nick Hill from our own backyard here at Walker Hill, his prediction is ‘I foresee a significant loss of jobs in the coming 6 to 12 months following the wind up of JobKeeper. Things always take time to correct themselves so stay tuned.’

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