Housing industry stands to lose half a million jobs

Australia’s housing industry stands to lose half a million jobs by the end of the year as projects dry up due to the coronavirus. Housing Industry Australia Graham Wolfe told Sky News up to 100,000 front end jobs, such as designers and estimates, have already been lost and the situation has only been made worse by a key flaw in the JobKeeper scheme. “There are some in our industry who have been about to access JobKeeper but there are many, because of our nature of the contract legislation that exists for consumer protection laws around the country, builders have been continuing to do the work that has been in the pipeline and as they continue to do that work they continue to get revenue,” he said. “That revenue hasn’t dropped to 30 per cent. But we’re not getting new orders in the front door and that six to nine-month pipeline has stopped.” Mr Wolfe said the industry risked a massive hit towards the latter half of the year unless the government intervened. Via news.com.au — Australia’s #1 news site https://www.news.com.au