Australia braces for unemployment spike as JobKeeper cuts begin
Many businesses are expected to shut down and cause unemployment to spike, as payments from the JobKeeper scheme are set to be cut today.
Trading has taken a heavy hit due to coronavirus restrictions and more than 500,000 businesses are still relying on JobKeeper to pay their staff.
Peter Strong from the Council of Small Businesses Australia expects the cut will cause an increase in unemployment as businesses that otherwise would have shut down continued to operate under the scheme.
Mr Strong said managing the cut effectively would come down to strong communication from government officials.
“Give us warning, let us know because businesses have shown in the main … they’ve been unbelievable in changing and responding to new situations.
“We can make it better for everybody, keep more people in jobs, keep more people less scared about the future.”
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