In Australia, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced that the country’s unemployment rate might hit up to 13% by the end of September, says a news agency report. It has led as many as half a million Australians to fear losing jobs that could affect the National economy between $10 billion to $12 billion.
Once known as a global leader in fighting COVID-19, Australia has now reached a surge of new infections the past month. To control the spread desperately, the Victoria state-imposed nightly curfew across Melbourne earlier this month. The curfew tightened some restrictions on movement and ordered large parts of the state's economy to close. Followed by the full lockdown of the country's second-most populous city, Australia is now expected to rise by 13% in its unemployment rate.
Releasing modelling from Australia's treasury department, Mr.Frydenberg claimed that in the end week of July, effective unemployment totalled 9.9 %, falling from the record of 14% in April. Due to the sudden lockdown, Frydenberg said that the number of people without any job would rise by 450,000 during August and September. Lockdown of nearly five million people in Victoria state capital, Melbourne has shown a worse impact than the pandemic.
Frydernberg in an e-mailed statement stated, " We know the road to recovery will be bumpy as we have seen with the setback in Victoria, however, the job recovery across the rest of the country gives cause for optimism".
“It was originally legislated for just six months, at that flat $1500 payment. What we’ve done is extend it for another six months out to the end of March. Now, it will transition from $1500 down to $1200 and then down to $1000, and there will be two different payments based on the number of hours worked.”
“Certainly, the situation in Victoria with stage four restrictions is very different. And it’s Treasury’s analysis that up to 400,000 people in Victoria will either lose their job or see their hours reduced down to zero.”
While businesses in the state of Victoria shut down again due to the sudden lockdown announced by the government, citizens who lost their jobs have to get security government-issued permit to move across the state. The state announced the strict curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. that also made the masks mandatory for the citizens. The lockdown has hit the country’s economy very hard, leading almost 250,000 people already lose their jobs so far.
