Tourism job focus a JobKeeper fear

MORE than 250,000 Queenslanders were still relying on JobKeeper at the end of last year, with fears of job losses in crucial industries – particularly tourism – when the subsidy ends next month.

Treasury figures show more than 500,000 JobKeeper recipients have come off the subsidy, but tourism hotspots remain disproportionately affected. The Gold Coast is home to 49,200 of Queensland’s 259,000 JobKeeper recipients, with 16,600 in Cairns.

With premiers continuing to enforce rapid-fire lockdowns, tourism operators fear they are at greatest risk.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind said many operators would struggle without government support.

“We hold a lot of concerns for operators around the state. It’s very visible in Cairns, but the same applies for operators who are heavy on international tourism on the Gold Coast and Brisbane,” he said.

“We are extremely concerned that not only will businesses struggle to maintain their capacity but they will also likely shed jobs as a result, and if we lose people out of our industry and the skills with it, we will struggle to ramp up the recovery when the time comes.”

It comes as the government’s expenditure review committee is this fortnight expected to consider a new support program for the industry.

The government is banking on an economic recovery to keep most Queenslanders out of the dole queues, with the data showing two-thirds of those once on the wage subsidy already no longer need it.

Data showed the number of people coming off JobKeeper, as businesses got back on track or people found new jobs, was “gathering momentum” towards the end of last year.

Treasury secretary Stephen Kennedy said there would be “some job losses” expected when the program ended.

There were a record number of job vacancies in January as businesses looked for staff. While Cairns and the Gold Coast continue to struggle, central Queensland, Townsville, Wide Bay and Toowoomba have made the biggest improvements in businesses coming off the wage subsidy.

Josh Frydenberg said more than 520,000 businesses and two million Australians no longer needed the subsidy as the nation recovered.

“These improvements have been broadbased across the country and we have seen encouraging signs across all sectors,” the Treasurer said.

Mr Frydenberg said 785,000 jobs had been created nationally in the past seven months, while measures including tax cuts, the JobMaker hiring credit for under-35s and asset write-offs were intended to continue to provide support.

The Treasury data showed there were 728,538 Queenslanders in jobs supported by JobKeeper subsidies from April to September, but only 258,951 over the December quarter.

This included 49,222 workers on the Gold Coast, compared to a height of 120,000 during the first six months of the JobKeeper program.