Victoria’s JobKeeper pain looms when many Australians face joining the dole queue

Hundreds of thousands of Victorians remain on JobKeeper but many may be left without work, writes Sophie Elsworth.

With just four weeks to go until the Federal Government’s JobKeeper tap is turned off serious pain looms.

For many Australians it will inevitably mean joining the dole queue for the first time.

After dropping into a CBD gift shop this week with closing down signs plastered all over the front windows, the assistant in her 60s told me she won’t have a job to go to when the store permanently shuts its doors.

Packaging up my goods she explained how tough the past year had been, her husband’s pub in outer Melbourne had struggled to survive and now she was facing the very real prospect of being jobless once JobKeeper stops.

She said she’s started applying for jobs but no luck yet.

You could hear the fear in her voice.

And there will be many more workers like this across not just in Victoria but across the country.

Latest Australian Taxation Office figures show between October and December last year more than 1.54 million employees collected the JobKeeper – down from 3.6 million in April and September.

And Victoria was still the most reliant on JobKeeper – more than 626,000 people were still on the wage subsidy.

Undoubtedly the impact of Premier Daniel Andrews’ devastating 112-day lockdown.

Victoria will no doubt be the state that is going to face the greatest challenge to bounce back.

While a large portion of Australians no longer need government support to survive, there will be many businesses that will crumble once this unprecedented economic lifeline is switched off for good.

The CBD has changed forever and will take years to return some kind of Covid normal.

A Melbourne hospitality owner who employs more than 600 staff told me unless all the restrictions are eased by the end of March – including eateries only operating at 1 person per 2sq metres – he will have to lay off more than 150 staff.

He’s anxiously waiting to see what the next few weeks hold.

He described the last Victorian lockdown as “cruel”.

Many restaurateurs had to bin tonnes of food worth millions of dollars, too late to even give it to those in need.

Speaking to fellow Melburnians, it’s not hard to find someone who says they simply can’t do another lockdown.

The five-day snap lockdown brought back torturous memories of what so many Victorians lived and breathed in 2020.

The fate for so many people in work – that is the private sector – will remain to be seen.

@sophieelsworth