STAY LOCAL TO DO BUSINESS
GEELONG residents are being urged to support local businesses after the state’s unemployment rate jumped to 6 per cent.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released yesterday revealed about 127,000 Victorians lost their jobs in April.
Deakin University senior economics lecturer Omar Bashar said the numbers were not surprising.
“It’s not that bad compared with what we originally feared we could hit without the JobKeeper program and other subsidies,” Dr Bashar said.
“What we can see is quite normal given the extraordinary circumstances. We expected a lot of people would lose their jobs.”
While he expected sectors such as hospitality and retail to recover quickly once restrictions were lifted, others such as tourism, would take longer.
Geelong Chamber of Commerce president Ben Flynn said the unemployment rates have “real concern” for a number of businesses across the municipality. “Local businesses are the ones that provide a lot of employment, especially smaller businesses,” Mr Flynn said. “It’s important we build and maintain confidence so those employers are willing to take people on and build careers for people in the local workforce.”
He said the chamber was “very concerned” about potential long-term impacts on business and business confidence. “We’re going to continue to work hard to promote the Geelong region’s businesses and jobs to ensure people stay employed and businesses are in the best position moving forward,” Mr Flynn said.
Westend publican Cam O’Keefe said Federal Government subsidies such as JobKeeper had been vital for keeping his full-time staff employed. “If we were to get JobKeeper pulled early it would make it an extremely difficult decision about what our way forward would be,” Mr O’Keefe said.
“We’ve got a fantastic relationship with our landlord, he’s been an important part of us getting through this.”
Regional ABS analysis, including Geelong region’s job numbers, will be released on Thursday.