Despite Peel taking a significant financial hit due to COVID-19 restrictions, the region had far less reliance on JobKeeper than other suburbs across Australia.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), a total of 2412 businesses in the Peel region registered for JobKeeper with one third of businesses in Mandurah receiving the payments.
Data released by analysis company Taylor Fry in its COVID-19 Financial Impact Index showed the Peel region had been less reliant on JobKeeper than expected, with most suburbs sitting in the 0-30th percentile of postcodes across the country.
The index showed the employment sectors with the biggest variance to the state average, with Peel's major variance being the mining industry, which didn't shut down during the nation-wide lockdown.
Sitting in the 0-10th percentile for reliance on JobKeeper, Murray (6390 postcode) had 26.1 per cent more than the state average employed in metal ore mining, while Waroona had 3.3 per cent.
Other postcodes in the 10-20th percentile had similar trends with other parts of Murray having 9.6 per cent more than the state average employed in metal ore mining, Dawesville and Bouvard had 2.7 per cent, and East Mandurah had 1.1 per cent.
Talking to business owners in the Peel region, many said there could also be a lower reliance on JobKeeper as some businesses and employees fell through the cracks of government subsidy criteria.
When the Mandurah Mail last interviewed The Bridge owner Jason Hutchen he said some of his workers weren't covered by the scheme.
"We have some employees on visas who have been with us for four years and they can't go back home and they can't get any funding from the government either," he said.
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All the Peel suburbs with a higher unemployment and retirement rate relative to the rest of the state also recorded the lowest reliance on JobKeeper.
Parts of Serpentine Jarrahdale, Murray, Waroona, Pinjarra, Halls Head and Erskine, which are all sitting in the 0-10th reliance percentile, had unemployment and retirement rates much higher than the state average.
The unemployment and retirement rates in Serpentine Jarrahdale (6126 postcode) were particularly high as the region sat at 48.2 per cent more than the state average.
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Unlike most suburbs in the Peel region, parts of North Mandurah were much harder hit with the suburb sitting in the 80-90th percentile for reliance on JobKeeper.
The JobKeeper reliance index rates every suburb according to how many of its residents are likely to be receiving JobKeeper. It uses data on JobKeeper from the ABS in combination with the most recent census to rank postcodes.
