10,OOO OUT OF WORK

REVEALED: THE SUBURBS WORST HIT BY COVID-19 JOBS CRISIS

▪ $68m in lost wages

▪ 30 businesses go bust

▪ Coast hardest hit

MORE than 10,000 jobs have been lost in Geelong and the Surf Coast due to COVID-19, ripping the equivalent of $68.2 million in wages away from the region in five weeks. The new data comes as it was also revealed at least 30 local businesses had gone under.

MORE than 10,000 jobs have been lost in Geelong and the Surf Coast due to COVID-19, ripping the equivalent of $68.2 million in wages away from the region in five weeks, analysis from a national demography group has revealed.

The figures reveal the region’s 19 “small areas” shed between 8.03 and 11.75 per cent of jobs in the five weeks to April 18, as the worldwide pandemic arrived on Australian shores.

Suburb-by-suburb data by Australian Development Strategies (ADS) show 10,147 jobs were lost in the region over the five-week period, resulting in an estimated $13.6 million in lost wages each week — totalling $68.2 million in lost income during that period.

Lorne-Anglesea was hit hardest, shedding more than one in 10 jobs (11.75 per cent) and draining $1 out of every $10 earned in wages (10.4 per cent), leaving 267 residents without work and about $1.4 million out of pocket.

To break down the local employment impact of COVID-19, ADS used Single Touch Payroll System data from March 14 to April 18 accessed via the Australian Taxation Office, covering about 10 million of the 13 million employed Australians. The group then used statistical modelling and 2016 census wage figures to reproduce the data at a suburban level.

With the data ending at April 18, and COVID-19 restrictions only eased by the State Government this week, it is expected the figures have continued to grow.

To ease the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Corangamite Labor MP Libby Coker said the Federal Government’s $130 billion JobKeeper wage-subsidy program should run beyond its six-month course and not be scaled back.

“We still need JobKeeper to continue until September and even beyond in certain hard hit vocations,” Ms Coker said.

“We do need to invest in job and services and build our society.

“We can’t agonise too much about (government) debt. This debt is an investment in the economy.”

Opinion is divided on of the $1500-per-fortnight program expected to be accessed by five million workers.

Liberal MP Jason Falinski has called on the government to consider phasing out the program when schools return full-time to ensure the government can get the economy moving quickly.

Earlier this week Labor resolved to attempt to widen the JobKeeper program to universities.

Coalition MPs have raised the prospect of special assistance for the tourism sector via JobKeeper. Meanwhile more than a million people are on fortnightly JobSeeker payment that starts from $1115.

Ms Coker said the tourism along the Great Ocean Road had been decimated due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“It has been hit so hard and needs a particular focus … to bring people back to the region to stay, travel and spend.”

Andrew Devlin, who owns the five-room Southern Anchorage Retreat at Wattle Hill along the Great Ocean Road and accesses JobKeeper, said the program should be extended for hard-hit industries.

“We will definitely need the stimulus to keeping going because our overseas market is so heavy. About 70 per cent of our guests are internationals,” Mr Devlin said.

He said tourism and accommodation providers at Lavers Hill, Port Campbell and Apollo Bay might be forced to close without government intervention.

As international tourists cancel bookings for summer 2020-21 at Mr Devlin’s retreat that’s been closed since March 23, he predicted it would be two years before bookings returned to 2019 levels.

“I already know January, February and March (next year) we will be really quiet.”

Ms Coker said the tourism, retail and hospitality sectors needed direct government intervention after JobKeeper expired, and that a jobs guarantee should run in the months after it.

She said jobs in construction, road work and environmental upkeep, such as work to prevent coastal erosion in Corangamite, underwritten by the Federal Government could aid the recovery.

Nationally more than 800,000 businesses have applied for JobKeeper.