Income support in a time of contagion

The welfare state as a source of worker protection in times of joblessness came under acute pressure with the economic dislocation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. In Australia the federal government instituted a new JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme while also reconfiguring its principal unemployment benefit scheme, JobSeeker. This article outlines the impact of COVID-19 on our understandings of what counts as ‘unemployment’; the role of JobKeeper as an income guarantee; and the various reconfigurations of JobSeeker. In particular, it situates JobSeeker within an established but evolving regulatory model of Australian unemployment assistance.