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A JOBS-LED recovery will power Australia to postCOVID prosperity and rebuild the economy with a multibillion-dollar skills package to turbocharge the employment market.

A $6.4bn investment in 2021-22 is designed to build skills the Australian economy most needs, creating hundreds of thousands of apprenticeships and training spots in areas of critical shortage.

There is also support for connecting the vulnerable and the long-term unemployed, as well as Australians living in remote areas, to jobs.

“Jobs are coming back. The economy is coming back. Australia is coming back,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg declared in his budget speech.

The budget details a bright picture of the nation’s jobs recovery so far, with unemployment lower – at 5.6 per cent – than it was when the Coalition came to government.

The budget predicts unemployment to fall further to five per cent in mid-2022, before falling to 4.75 per cent in mid-2023. This means the unemployment rate is set to recover five times faster than the last recession in the 1990s.

“Treasury feared unemployment could reach 15 per cent and the economy contract by more than 20 per cent,” Mr Frydenberg said.

“Today the reality is very different”.

Headlining a suite of jobsdriving measures, the government will double the size of its $1bn JobTrainer fund, training another 163,000 people in areas of critical skills shortage, including 10,000 places for digital skills and 33,800 for aged care.

The federal government last night committed another $500m to the program, which will be matched by state and territory governments.

There is also a $2.7bn investment to support apprenticeships, which includes 170,000 new apprenticeships and traineeships, 5000 higher education short courses and 2700 places in Indigenous girls’ academies to help them finish school and get a job.

The apprenticeship program is demand-driven, and pays businesses a 50 per cent wage subsidy over 12 months for new apprentices or trainees signed up by March 31, 2022. The subsidy is capped at $7000 per quarter per apprentice or trainee. There will also be support for 5000 women to start a “non-traditional” apprenticeship.

Vulnerable Australians and those who are unemployed will also receive special support to help them participate in the labour market.

This includes $15.6m for wage subsidies of up to $10,000 for youth, single parents and long term unemployed to have more access to job opportunities.

An extra $23.6m will be spent to help those in need with basic language, reading, maths and computer skills training for jobseekers.

And for young people, an extra $481.2m in the Transition to Work employment service will help unemployed Australians aged 15-24 move into work or education. Other measures include:

$10.7m to trial new digital skills cadetships;

$7.6m for the National Careers Institute to connect young people with education, training and work options;

$213.5m to extend and