Federal Finance Minister Simon Birmingham says he can sympathise with Australians on JobKeeper as the Treasury warns 150,000 Australians could lose their jobs when the scheme ends.

The wage subsidy is due to end next week.

Senator Birmingham described it as “the single largest intervention in the Australian economy by a government”.

He said it has saved 700,000 jobs and businesses from going under, according to the Reserve Bank.

“It helped provide the springboard for our economy recovery,” he told Scott Emerson.

“I know the end of JobKeeper will cause concern, and is causing concern in some businesses and some individuals and households.

“Will there be some business failures to come as JobKeeper and other support measures come off? Yes.

“And probably what we should acknowledge is that programs like this designed for an emergency, artificially propped up some businesses that probably would not have ordinarily survived.

“We always have some businesses that fail, new businesses that emerge and that’s the nature of an economy and the same can be said in relation to jobs.”

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