Former Liberal leader John Hewson says once government handouts begin to phase out it will likely be the case that Australia’s unemployment rate could be up to 14 per cent as opposed to the current rate of just over seven per cent.
“They say unemployment goes up in the elevator comes down by the stairs … it’s very slow to grind it back down,” Mr Hewson told Sky News host Peter Gleeson. “We went in with a low unemployment rate of around the low fives … it’s now been recorded a bit over seven.
“The real number we know because of JobKeeper and people leaving the workforce and so-on is probably around thirteen fourteen per cent. “We don’t know yet how that will unfold when you start to phase JobKeeper out and cut back on some of the business support and people have to start paying their mortgages and their rents and insolvencies and bankruptcies start to emerge.” Image: Getty
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