Today will spell the end of JobKeeper, one of Australia's most ambitious public welfare programs, almost a year after it was announced.

There was little debate over its necessity when Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced it on March 30 last year.

"Businesses will close and people will lose their jobs," the Treasurer said at the time, while the Prime Minister described the payment as a tether between worker and employer to keep people in jobs "even though the business they work for may go into hibernation and close down for six months".

A year ago, that kind of mystery shrouded almost every aspect of our lives as many empty toilet paper aisles could attest.

No-one could predict how long the borders would stay shut, how long social distancing regulations would be necessary and even whether the health system could cope with an unflattened curve.

Forward estimates in October pegged the program's cost at $101.3 billion, and this week it was reported 330,000 people will lose the payment by the time next week begins.

What that means for the future of their job, or the viability of the business they have worked for, remains to be seen.

While unemployment data has so far been promising in regards to how Australia has weathered the storm, the reality is that JobKeeper has offered the measure an artificial buoyancy.

The latest measure for Newcastle and Lake Macquarie put the overall unemployment rate at 4.6 per cent.

Hunter Business Chamber chief executive Bob Hawes said that was encouraging, particularly given it was down from 7.6 per cent in the previous period, but exactly what happened next was for some as uncertain as the future seemed a year ago.

"We hope that the impact of JobKeeper ending is minimal and that most businesses in our area are now in a position to transition off the scheme, if they havent already, Mr Hawes said.

But the reality is that the loss of the subsidy will put a financial squeeze on businesses that are still recovering from COVID and reducing their payroll may be the only way for them to stay afloat."

Given tomorrow will also mark looser regulations across NSW regarding dancing, weddings and other major events, the timing is perhaps right for such an unprecedented safety net to be folded away.

With unemployment benefits to rise $25 per week from April, a figure advocates sledged as inadequate, some may face the harsh reality of unemployment in Australia without the cushion of pandemic measures for the first time.

What matters from here is that policy reflects that every person facing this change is an individual, not a number, and that compromising their future cannot simply be considered the cost of doing business.

Matt Carr, deputy editor