NSW suburbs hit hard with job losses caused by COVID-19

The entire state is feeling the economic pain of the COVID-19 job losses. Now The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the 50 suburbs suffering the most from the mass closure. SEE THE LIST

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Suburbs with high numbers of young workers, as well as those near the coast, have been hit the hardest by the COVID-19 unemployment crisis.

The entire state is feeling the pain but demographer Dr Kim Johnstone has crunched the numbers to reveal the 50 suburbs suffering the most from the mass closure of hospitality, retail, arts, sports, aviation and tourism-based employers.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal some of the worst are Canterbury, Campsie, Dee Why, Curl Curl, Mount Annan, Mascot and Rockdale.

Eastlakes, central Sydney, Ashfield, Camperdown and Banksia are also in the top 10 for suburbs with at least 2600 workers in affected industries.

People have inundated Centrelink in the past couple of weeks after losing their job due to business shutdowns. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

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Dr Johnstone said these suburbs would also be hit by the double-whammy of unemployed locals having less money to spend on nearby businesses.

“While our older population is bearing the brunt of the health crisis, our city’s young people are the ones most likely to be in the queues at Centrelink,” Dr Johnstone, an associate director at planning consultancy Astrolabe Group, said.

Demographer Dr Kim Johnstone.

“These are the people working in casual and part-time positions who were told in the past two weeks they don’t have a job to go to.”

Dr Johnstone, a statistics expert formerly with the NSW Department of Planning, said western Sydney has been less impacted than the city’s central and eastern regions.

“Dee Why and Curl Curl was initially a surprise, but then you consider the amount of people who work in sports-based industries along our beaches,” she said.

“Many of those hit would have been part of the annual influx of job seekers into Sydney during January.”

Many of the suburbs most affected, like Mount Annan and Currans Hill in Sydney’s south west, have a high proportion of young families.

“In these two areas many families have one parent working full-time and the other as a casual — and that casual work has obviously dried up,” Camden state Liberal MP Peter Sidgreaves said.

“All through the electorate, all you see is ghost towns. It’s depressing.”

To stem the tide of unemployment brought about through the COVID-19 shutdown, the federal government’s JobKeeper program gives workers a flat payment of $1500 per fortnight through their employer, before tax.

This is apart from the $550 per fortnight coronavirus JobSeeker Supplement.

But many, like United Cinemas owner Sam Mustaca, believe that is not enough.

Mr Mustaca used to employ 200 part-timers and casuals on the Northern Beaches, Katoomba, Narellan Town Centre and George St.

He has been forced to chop his workforce back to about 22 people.

“It has been absolutely shocking for these people and I hope this only has to happen once in a lifetime,” he said.

Ela Ray is now unemployed after being forced to shut down her pilates studio. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Bondi Junction woman Ela Ray, 32, was forced to join the unemployment queue at Centrelink after her pilates studio was forced to close.

Her work as a dancer at the Sydney Opera House has also evaporated.

“I started the pilates business in part to make sure I would never be in that line at Centrelink,” she said.

“It’s devastating to see other people in the industry who I regard so highly being in that queue.”