Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has advised that the federal government’s May 2021 Budget will include changes to the eligibility criteria for its JobMaker hiring credit scheme. The program has performed well below expectations to date, with just 521 new jobs being created in its first six weeks – way below the Australian Treasury’s projection of at least 10,000 over the same time period.
Accordingly, JobMaker has made $800,000 in payments so far out of a budgeted $4 billion.
Treasury initially projected that JobMaker would create 450,000 jobs over 2½ years. But many large employers have indicated that they are either not aware of the scheme or have no intention of using it.
