The Melbourne Institute’s latest ‘Taking the Pulse of the Nation’ survey shows that just 32% of Australians who are working fewer hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic are receiving the JobKeeper wage subsidy. It also shows that the proportion of respondents who are satisfied with the federal government’s response to the pandemic has fallen from 66% to 62% over the last week, whereas more people believe the economy will be adversely impacted beyond 12 months:
Satisfaction with government economic policies to keep people at work fell to 62% in wave 8, after averaging around 66% for the previous 5 waves. As shown in Figure 1, in wave 8, the proportion of people reporting satisfaction was highest amongst those working with increased hours (72%) and lowest amongst those who are unemployed (because of COVID19) but looking for work (51%).
A closer look at the survey results amongst the unemployed revealed a stark difference in the proportions expressing dis-satisfaction between those unemployed due to COVID-19 (21%) and those unemployed not due to COVID-19 (12%). This may reflect the uptake of the JobSeeker payments. Information provided over 3 weeks of the survey (waves 6-8) showed that, on average, JobSeeker payments were received by 26% of the unemployed due to COVID-19 and 38% of the unemployed due to other causes.
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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.
