JobSaver to be expanded to hospitality and retail giants to save jobs

The NSW Government is reportedly set to announce an expansion of its JobSaver program today to save 10,000 tourism and hospitality jobs.

A customer waits outside a coffee shop that swapped to takeaway only due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The NSW government is expected to announce an expansion of employment subsidies to hospitality and tourism businesses in an effort to save 10,000 jobs.

The Australian reports that the plan was approved by the state’s crisis cabinet on Wednesday and would allow large tourism, hospitality and recreation employers with annual turnovers of up to $1bn to access the government’s JobSaver subsidy scheme.

Streets, hospitality and retail areas of the CBD are all but empty.

Previously the program was limited to businesses with annual turnovers of $250m and below.

The expansion is expected to be announced today along with other support measures and changes to current restrictions.

The current scheme was due to conclude at the end of August. The Australian reports that

260,000 applications for support had been made since the program was announced, of which 200,000 had been approved but which were still being paid.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

The paper said the larger businesses with turnovers between $500m and $1bn will receive up to $500,000 in payments, provided they have experienced losses of 70 per cent due to the winter lockdown.

Service NSW will have two dedicated phone numbers to assist with business queries after the organisation was inundated with applications of the current scheme leading to weeks-long delays.

Health workers dressed in Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) wait for patients to arrive at the Willoughby Leisure Centre Drive-through Covid-19 testing clinic in Sydney.

It comes as NSW reported a record 919 Covid-19 cases, the highest one-day rise anywhere in the country since the start of the pandemic.

Currently 32.9 per cent of the NSW population was now fully vaccinated with some 61.5 per cent having received their first dose.