The Grattan Institute has released new research showing that workers in Arts and Recreation, Education and Hospitality are dominating the 830,000 application so far submitted to the federal government’s JobKeeper program:
The entire Arts and Recreational Services sector appears to be participating in the scheme. Indeed, it has a participation rate above 100 per cent, partly because of double counting (businesses and individuals can both lodge a claim relating to the same employee).
In contrast, fewer than 1 in 10 employers in Agriculture and Financial Services industries – sectors that have felt less of an impact to date – have indicated they will apply.
A look at applications as a share of businesses in each sector – noting that there may be some classification differences between the JobKeeper and ABS data – shows that most employers in hard-hit sectors have expressed an interest in receiving the payment.
We will know more in coming months, when the Australian Tax Office releases data on successful applications for JobKeeper. But for now, it appears the program will hit its targets.
Monday’s employment projections from Grattan, which forecast up to 3.4 million Australians could lose their jobs, also showed that workers in these three sectors have the highest risk of unemployment:
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
