Coronavirus Australia: Game on for work and play as restrictions ease

After months of pain, more than 300,000 workers across retail and hospitality are now expected to be back in work by July.

Scott Morrison: ‘We are on the road back. I am so pleased that one week down from announcing that three-step process, that states and territories are overwhelmingly moving through step one’. Picture: Getty Images

Almost 100,000 waiters, bar staff, chefs, sales assistants and other Australians working in the food services and accommodation ­industry are predicted to regain their jobs over the next few weeks as states lift restrictions and ­reopen their economies.

Treasury analysis obtained by The Weekend Australian estimates 98,200 jobs will be restored in food services and accommodation during the first phase of ­national cabinet’s three-step corona­virus recovery plan.

Treasury also predicts 337,900 Australians across the industry — more than a third of the food services and accommodation workforce — will be back in work by July. A further 25,100 transport, postal and warehousing industry workers, 15,000 construction workers and 19,700 people in the professional, scientific and technical services sector, which includes accountants, solicitors, vets and graphic designers, are expected to be working again by next month as the economy reawakens.

With pubs, restaurants and cafes reopening for 10 to 20 diners at a time this weekend in NSW, Queensland, the ACT and the Northern Territory, Scott Morrison on Friday declared: “We are on the road back. I am so pleased that one week down from announcing that three-step process, that states and territories are overwhelmingly moving through step one.

“In particular today the Northern Territory Chief Minister ­(Michael Gunner) was able to pull the first brew … While there’s not too much to celebrate more ­broadly as a country, with the difficult ­circumstances we face and particularly with yesterday’s ­unemployment numbers, it is I think a welcome sign that we are on the road back.”

The Prime Minister also revealed there could be opportunities for domestic tourism operators worth about $20bn while inter­national borders are closed and Australians holiday at home.

Josh Frydenberg said the time was right to start boosting employment. “With significant progress on the health front, Australia is now in a position to start easing ­restrictions in accordance with the medical advice and to get people back to work,” the Treasurer said. Mr Morrison, premiers and chief ministers were briefed by Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy, ­Reserve Bank governor ­Philip Lowe and Australian Prudential Regulation Authority chair Wayne Byres.

 

Mr Morrison said the banking system had stood up well and had provided $220bn in loan deferrals to mortgage holders and businesses. But he warned there were limits to the support that could be provided. “Our system is finite,” he said. “That’s why it is so important that we restart our economy and that’s why I applaud those many small and medium-sized enterprises who are doing just that today. And I know they’ve been looking forward to doing it.”

The Treasury estimates come after the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday that about 600,000 jobs were lost and hours worked fell 9.2 per cent in April as social distancing was introduced across the nation to flatten the coronavirus curve. There are now about 1.6 million Australians on JobSeeker payments and about six million are being covered by JobKeeper.

While Treasury is forecasting the first stage of easing restrictions will reignite employment in key industries, employer groups warn the 10-person limit in many jurisdictions will limit the pace of improvement for some operators.

The Australian Hotels Association said just 25 of 325 pubs in Queensland had indicated they would open on Saturday and these were primarily businesses that had been doing takeaway meals.

More than 850,000 jobs are ­expected to be restored by step three of Australia’s recovery plan, when gatherings increase to 100 people, interstate travel reopens and flights to New Zealand and other Pacific countries can be considered as early as July.

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive Wes Lambert said that because of the low dining numbers allowed in venues under the stepped plan, the industry did not expect to recover the 441,000 jobs lost until stage three and beyond. “With only 100 patrons (allowed during stage three), we expect the industry will continue to have a significant number of job losses,” Mr Lambert said.

The hospitality industry has begun to reawaken as retailers also gear up their operations.

Scentre Group, which operates Westfield, said 57 per cent of ­retailers were open and trading in the March quarter, representing 70 per cent of floor space. An Australian Retailers Association survey of 139 members, mostly single-store traders or smaller ­organisations with two to five stores, found 80 per cent were open and 10 per cent were aiming to open within a week.

More than three-quarters (77 per cent) said they had applied for the government’s $1500 fortnightly JobKeeper payments, with most expecting their total wages bill to increase as a result. That means employees, many of them casuals, will receive more ­income under JobKeeper than they ordinarily would.

National cabinet, which is not due to meet again until May 29 after its longest hiatus, heard Australia’s financial markets had stabilised and the banking system had stood up well, but Mr Morrison warned the “shock absorbers” in the economy, be they private or public programs such as JobKeeper and JobSeeker, had their limits.

On Friday there were fewer than 1000 active COVID-19 cases in Australia, with 50 people in hospital and 12 on ventilators.