Up to 250,000 more unemployed when JobKeeper ends within weeks We’re sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later. Dismiss Normal text size Advertisement Up to 250,000 workers could lose their jobs when the JobKeeper wage subsidy ends this month as insolvency data reveals just three companies have used the federal government’s new rules to help struggling employers restructure to avoid shutting down. The end of the $90 billion JobKeeper program on March 28 is expected to result in thousands of businesses failing, pushing 125,000 to 250,000 people out of work, University of Melbourne Professor Jeff Borland estimates. His analysis also considers revenue declines and businesses that would have closed under normal trading conditions but have been kept afloat due to the wage subsidy scheme.