The initiative that 'halved' Australia's COVID-19 job losses

A report from the Reserve Bank of Australia has said that national job losses would have doubled during the pandemic without the JobKeeper wage subsidy.

The government initiative has helped speed up a recovery, but as state borders reopen, the economy will be fragile until there is a vaccine.

New research has shown that 3.5 million workers were on the wage subsidy at its peak between April and July and the Reserve Bank estimated the payment saved 700,000 people from joining the unemployment queue.

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Chris Richardson from Deloitte Access Economics said the initiative had almost halved the economic problem Australia would otherwise be dealing with.

As the NSW-Victoria border reopens, Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese has said the government missed an opportunity to both help the poor, and pump-prime the building industry.

"In spite of $100 billion of new money, not a single dollar for public and community housing," he said.

But Arts Minister Paul Fletcher spruiked a quarter-billion-dollar fund to reboot creative industries.

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He said the national funding would generate 44,000 jobs.

Nonetheless, any economic recovery will remain fragile until there is a widely-available COVID-19 vaccine.

"The years ahead will continue to be tough," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in his recent address to the G20.

"Recovery is never easy."