The Morrison Government’s scheduled return of the JobSeeker payment to its old base rate will rip out almost $24 million from the Hunter region’s economy, the equivalent of 9,501 jobs*.
The Morrison Government is scheduled to snapback JobSeeker in a matter of months with the end of the Coronavirus supplement.
Millions of out-of-work Australians are anxious about what level of support will be available to them at the end of September.
It defies reality that the Prime Minister believes that he can snapback JobSeeker, when there are nowhere near enough jobs for the people who need them.
There are 476,000 Australians on unemployment payments in NSW, but only 39,800 job vacancies, as at May. This means, there are 11 Australians out of work for every one job vacancy in NSW.
This will be compounded by the scheduled snapback of JobKeeper, which will see more Australians in need of JobSeeker.
Scott Morrison’s snapback of JobSeeker is not a plan for jobs and will place our nation’s economic recovery at risk.
*based on the average total earnings reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics for November 2019
| Region | Electorates | Number of people on unemployment payments | Value of Coronavirus Supplement ($/f.n.) | Jobs Equivalent |
| Hunter Region | Newcastle | 10,986 | 6,042,300 | 2,403 |
| Paterson | 12,239 | 6,731,450 | 2,678 | |
| Shortland | 9,168 | 5,042,400 | 2,006 | |
| Hunter | 11,034 | 6,068,700 | 2,414 | |
| Total | 43,427 | 23,884,850 | 9,501 |