Once JobKeeper, which covers a large number of people working zero hours a week, is taken out of the employment mix, the real rate of unemployment is probably nudging 14 per cent; possibly more.

That is a level of joblessness we haven't seen since the Great Depression when unemployment jumped from seven per cent to 10 per cent between 1929 and 1930, before peaking at 19.75 per cent in 1932. There are now almost one million Australians actively seeking work.

The other bad news, once again not contained within the figures themselves, is that both the reported and the "real" rates of unemployment are going to get a lot worse. The PM, Scott Morrison, warned the figures for July will take a bad hit as a result of the "second wave" outbreaks in Victoria and NSW.

The takeaway from all of this is that there is not going to be a snapback, that, in general, older workers, women and young people are going to struggle to find new jobs anytime soon, and that economic support for unemployed, and underemployed, Australians will need to be kept in place for the foreseeable future. One piece of good news is that, reading between the lines of the JobTrainer package, it is apparent the government will not be pulling the rug out from under hundreds of thousands of struggling Australian families when JobSeeker and JobKeeper come to the end of their lives.

While we won't know exactly what form the new support mechanisms will take until the long-awaited economic statement due to be handed down next Thursday, the PM made it very clear that comprehensive arrangements, targeting specific sectors of the economy, would be put in place.

JobTrainer's strong emphasis on retraining workers to find work in new fields is to be commended. It recognises that, regardless of what else happens, thousands of Australian businesses just aren't going to make it through to "the other side". Many enterprises, now on life support thanks to JobKeeper, are already dead in the water. They will fold once those payments cease.

The package appears to be well thought through and in accordance with the needs of Australian businesses and workers. Given it is very difficult to argue against the creation of 340,000 new training places at a time like this, it is not surprising the program has generally been well received.

It is now apparent early hopes the crisis would last for six months were overly optimistic. The dysfunctional way in which some of the world's largest nations responded, and the emergence of "second wave" infections in Australia, mean everybody is going to be living under the shadow of the virus, and its economic fallout, for years to come.

While Australia is still travelling better than many other nations around the world on both the public health and the economic fronts, there is no hiding the fact that these are the most challenging times this country has had to face since the 1930s and 1940s.

We are also in the grip of the first recession in more than a generation; something for which most Australians under 40 have little experience of or preparation for.

While nobody knows what the future will bring, or what next month's challenges are going to be, it is reassuring to know government, business, and labour organisations are working closely together to ensure the best possible outcomes for the millions of people whose lives have been thrown into chaos.