Hundreds of thousands of small business workers are out of work while most big business employees survive
Latest figures show the great divide between the amount of small business workers who have lost their jobs compared to those working for big companies.
Coronavirus
Don't miss out on the headlines from Coronavirus. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Exclusive: The number of small business workers who have lost their jobs during the pandemic is more than 10 times that of big business staff, new analysis shows.
Latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data assessed by think tank Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) found between March 22 and August 22, 377,400 small business employees lost their jobs in contrast to just 30,900 big business employees.
Small business is defined as enterprises with fewer than 20 employees compared to big business with more than 200 employees.
The IPA also accused Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews of “crushing jobs with continued lockdown measures”, particularly small operators.
Many small businesses have been severely impacted during the lockdowns — not all operate out of from corporate office environments and have been less easily able to transition to working from home.
The hospitality, tourism and aviation industries have been among the worst hit in Australia in 2020.
Experts said the lockdowns have caused hardship to small business, particularly for Victorian operators who still face months more of restrictions.
The IPA’s research fellow Cian Hussey said “small businesses are the backbone of the economy and the heart of communities”.
“Small business owners embody the Australian way of life, they are hardworking, take risks, create prosperity for others and have a stake in the success of their local community,” he said.
“Victoria’s small businesses have been hammered by the lockdown and they will continue to suffer while Andrews pursues his fanciful elimination strategy.”
Unemployment figures were at 7.5 per cent in July but this does not include Australians who are on JobKeeper payments and could be left without a job at the end of the Federal Government’s support ending.
The IPA data showed the percentage of workers who lost their jobs since March in small business was: Victoria (12.6 per cent), NSW (8.5 per cent), ACT (8 per cent), Tasmania (6.9 per cent), Queensland (4.7 per cent), SA (4.1 per cent) and WA (4 per cent).
The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia’s chief executive officer Peter Strong said immense damage had been done to smaller operators.
“Many small businesses have been badly impacted and they haven’t got a large corporation behind them that can absorb the losses,” he said.
“COVID has hit a lot businesses hard including cafes, restaurants and hairdressers.”
He also said small businesses were further burdened with ongoing “red tape”.
While many businesses across the nation have resumed trading with many guidelines in place such as social distancing, Victoria remains under one of the harshest lockdowns in the world.
There remains about one million Australian businesses receiving JobKeeper payments including about 3.6 million employees.
JobKeeper payments are due to be wound back from September 28.
The fortnightly payments reduce from $1500 to $1200.