According to the University of New South Wales professor of economics Raja Junankar, younger workers and women are likely to face some tough times ahead as they are more likely to work in casual or part-time positions.
“Casual workers will also have to carry the financial burden of going without pay for two weeks if they need to go into self-isolation,” Professor Junankar said.
The professor believes women are more likely to be affected due to working cash-in-hand roles, casual and part-time work due to family commitments.
“While it is a choice for many women to take up part-time work to spend more time with family, we note that the under-utilisation rate in Australia has gone up by 14 per cent even if unemployment has been hovering around 5 per cent.”
“This increase in the under-utilisation rate means that there are more unemployed people who are actively seeking employment,” Professor Junankar said.
What more can be done to safeguard the economy?
To protect vulnerable workers, Professor Junankar suggested the following 10-point plan to prevent a recession from occurring:
- Lower taxes on lower-income groups – as lower-income groups have a high marginal propensity to consume, it would lead to a significant expansion in consumption expenditures.
- Invest heavily in renewable energy such as solar panels and solar batteries. With very low interest rates, the real rate of return on investment would be high.
- Invest in low-cost housing for the homeless and low-income families.
- Invest in aged care homes in the public sector.
- Invest in better medical facilities in remote areas for Indigenous people.
- Increase the immediate cash payment to $2,000 to all those on New Start Allowances.
- Implement an immediate cash payment of $2,000 to all volunteer firefighters who were working during the bushfire emergency.
- Increase the minimum wage from $19.49 per hour ($748.80 per week) to (say) $20.65 ($785 per week).
- Increase New Start Allowance from $278 per week to at least $375 per week (and then index it to real wages).
- Increase public sector wages of auxiliary hospital staff, teachers in childcare centres and staff in aged care facilities.
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