With the current social restrictions forcing the downsizing or total closure of hospitality and accommodation businesses across the country, it will come as no surprise that many Australians recently made unemployed are former workers in those industries. However, the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics still make for sobering reading.
The accommodation and food services sector has been the worst impacted part of the Australian economy, with the loss of one in three paid jobs between mid-March – when Australia logged it 100th confirmed case of the disease – and mid-April.
Between March 14 and April 18, the number of paid jobs in Australia shrank by 7.5 per cent. However, accommodation and hospitality jobs decreased by a staggering 33.4 per cent – more than a third of the total number of jobs in that sector before the crisis. The next most hard-hit sector was the arts and recreation services industry, which lost 27 per cent of its full-time workforce. This figure does not include freelancers or contractors who may have lost commissions or bookings during the reporting period.
South Australia recorded the largest number of hospitality jobs lost, with a decrease of 39.7 per cent of the workforce, closely followed by Victoria, with a decrease of 35.6 per cent, and NSW, with a decrease of 33.4 per cent. Workers in the hospitality sector aged 20 to 29 were the worst affected, with 40.8 per cent of that demographic put out of work.