Victoria is will lose up to 325,000 jobs this year and nearly 400,000 over the next five years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by the City of Melbourne.
The modelling commissioned from PricewaterhouseCoopers by the local and state governments, casts the spotlight on the economic repercussions of COVID-19 over the next five years.
The “slow economic recovery” and elongated stage four restrictions could result in 398,000 jobs lost in Victoria over the next five years of which 79,000 will be in the city of Melbourne, said the report. In the worst-case scenario, the city’s economic output may be slashed by up to $23.5 billion in 2020 and $110 billion over the next five years.
It is hoped that the gloomy job-loss figures will be averted with economic stimulus and other recovery plans.
The return to 2019 levels would take at least five years, with recovery in 2024.
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There is also another scenario which is shown in the PwC report: “Scenario two aims to show the largest likely decline from stage 4 restrictions, so a true central scenario is likely to be between scenario one and two.”
There were 300 small and medium-sized business owners in Victoria surveyed by GLow Research on behalf of Sensis. The survey found that 29 per cent of owners to agree with the state government’s response to the pandemic and 20 per cent thought it was very good. There were 22 per cent of business owners who viewed it as very bad and 14 per cent said it was bad, while 15 per cent found it neither good nor bad.
