Wagga saw nearly 1800 businesses and sole traders apply for the JobKeeper in April, with some businesses now more optimistic that they can continue to trade after the wage subsidy ends in September.
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The federal treasury has released data on every postcode in Australia concerning how many applications it received for the $1500 per fortnight payment program during April.
Cobbler rd shoe repairs and gift shop owner Hayley Veitch said JobKeeper had helped during the early days of the pandemic but she was confident the business could stand on its own when the subsidies ended.
"I've talked to some other small businesses in the area and some of them would not have survived without JobKeeper," she said.
"It has helped us to keep on our full-time staff and others have been able to return to work as the restrictions lifted."
Mrs Veitch said she was ready for the subsidy to end.
"It was the most help in the early days when there was so much uncertainty," she said.
"We sat down to work out how we could save money and what we could do to stay afloat."
When compared to the census population figures, Wagga's 2650 postcode is sitting at 31.69 people per JobKeeper application, which was close to the NSW average of 31.32 people per application.
Tarcutta's postcode appeared to be more reliant on JobKeeper, with 27 people per application and Temora's postcode had 25 people per application.
The treasury's information did not cover how many employees were being supported by the program in each postcode and is based on the primary business address of each applicant.
Mrs Veitch said she had opened a beauty treatment centre above the shop to expand the number of services they could provide during the pandemic restriction.
"We're now employing four more people and JobKeeper also provided a bit of help with setting that up," she said.
Labor opposition treasury spokesperson Jim Chalmers said there was "danger" in the federal government's plan to wind up JobKeeper in September while at the same time ending the 'JobSeeker' additional unemployment payments.
Riverina MP Michael McCormack said JobKeeper package "was always intended to be a temporary measure".
"I appreciate the ongoing pandemic means conditions remain very unpredictable as we look to build our economy back towards normalcy," he said.
Mr McCormack said the government was also helping regional areas through roads and infrastructure funding.