Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

As I've said, we've seen around 93 per cent of the jobs that were lost as a result of COVID-19 return to the economy. What we are seeing is that the transition to the second phase of JobSeeker has been successful. It is ensuring that support is targeted to those who need it most. In fact, between September and December of 2020 we saw the level of economic support fall by $30 billion. At the same time the support was tapered, the economy added 320,000 jobs. New analysis of tax microdata by Treasury shows the number of phase 2 JobKeeper workers who are working zero or very low hours has been decreasing over time. What we've also seen is record numbers of previously unemployed people finding new jobs. In fact, to November 2020 we saw a record of 170,000 unemployed people into the workforce.