‘Act big and act fast’ Economist warns 21k jobs hang in balance

AN estimate that almost 6000 people have lost their jobs and almost 21,000 people are receiving Jobkeeper payments in Townsville highlights an urgent need to stimulate the economy, Townsville economist Jonathan Pavetto says.

Mr Pavetto, senior economist with the AEC Group, has provided the estimates based on figures sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Australian Tax Office and the firm’s in-house employment models.

He said they calculated 5973 people had lost their jobs in Townsville since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March.

He said the job losses occurred because businesses had closed, gone into hibernation or downsized and the employees were either ineligible for or had not moved on to the Government’s $1500-a-fortnight Jobkeeper payment.

AEC estimated another 28,892 people were on JobKeeper but were at risk of losing their jobs once the payment expired at the end of September because of continuing social-distancing restrictions or trade not returning.

“It’s not going to be a matter of flicking a switch on 1 October. You can’t flick a switch and remove restrictions on business and expect the economy to get back to normal,” Mr Pavetto said.

“We need very substantial investment into the city. We need to get started early.

“There is a lag between when governments announce infrastructure and when people start to get paid.

“The Queensland Government has to act big and act fast.”

AEC estimated about 2000 job losses had occurred in accommodation and food services, while another 2000 in that sector were on Jobkeeper.

About 500 job losses had occurred in education and training, a sector also estimated to have the most people on Jobkeeper at 3370.

In health care and social assistance, 635 jobs had been lost and 2860 were estimated to be on Jobkeeper.

The city’s COVID task force, led by Mayor Jenny Hill, this month identified three priority projects of expanding the Ayr Industrial Estate, developing an advanced manufacturing hub at Calcium and building a new rail freight line into the Townsville port.

Mr Pavetto said other shovel-ready projects like the Calcium manufacturing hub’s Driveit NQ motorsport facility deserved state funding.

Developing proposed health and knowledge precinct Tropiq also needed to be recognised as important to the city’s recovery, he said.

“The real issue is how we move beyond the short-term impacts,” Mr Pavetto said.

“Opening up is going to be harder than locking down.”