We now know that at April 10, a week ago, 1,236,875 people were being paid a wage subsidy.
47% of the country's workers are sitting idle.
Update: Treasury is providing different data saying "The number of Jobseeker Support beneficiaries has jumped sharply. Total wage subsidies payments reached $8.9 billion on 9 April, benefiting 1.4 million people." That would represent 53% of workers.
Update two: According to this source, 1.6 million at Friday April 17 - 60%
The article says, "By Friday afternoon, the government's wage subsidy was supporting 1.6 million workers - half the entire work force." I am using a different denominator - the closest approximation available of the number working before the crisis. The workforce includes people who were not.
The article also says, "Not every worker receiving the wage subsidy will lose their job - many are in construction, which is one of the areas tipped for boom times once the lockdown restrictions end."
Tipped by who? That's not what I am hearing firsthand.
2 comments:
Red fascism. The government has taken over the payroll of business, and this gives them a tingle down their legs. The coming depression doesn't enter into their thinking yet. The powerful emotion of lust for power consumes all other thoughts.
Lindsay, I would venture that the government is going to go on a debt fuelled building splurge on the basis of needing shovel ready jobs, once the danger of the Covid -19 has passed. That’s based on what I have heard from the government during the lockdown and could be the basis of that assumption for a building industry boom. I would also imagine that the Minister Phil Twyford will be put in charge, so all we will actually end up is a debt fuelled debt instead.
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