SYDNEY, Australia — The line for unemployment benefits curled around the block in an upscale neighborhood of Australia’s largest city, with officially prescribed wide distances between everyone in need.

There were restaurant workers in masks who had spent decades jumping from one hip hangout to another. An immigrant whose paychecks had risen as reliably as the sun. And a manager of event venues wearing $500 boots who hadn’t worried about work since the 1990s.

In a country where the last recession predates the birth of the web browser nearly three decades ago, the coronavirus is ripping away any pretense of economic exceptionalism and shouting to the nation that its days of exuberance are over.

“It always felt like if you work hard and put in the hours, you can get whatever you want,” said Milena Molina, 45, the manager of a law firm who was laid off last week for the first time in her career. “Now it’s just uncertainty. It gets worse every day.”