The unemployment rate in the ACT fell from 3.7 per cent to 3.6 per cent in June, despite increasing nationally, making Canberra businesses cautiously optimistic about the capacity of the private sector to absorb employees affected by public service job cuts.
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The total number of unemployed in the ACT fell from 9500 to 7400 in June, Australian Bureau of Statistics' data shows.
ACT & Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew Blyth said the decline in unemployment was encouraging, although it was far too early to declare Canberra immune to job cuts in the public service.
“There have already been some job losses in the public sector but the large numbers haven’t filtered through to the unemployment figures yet,” he said. “The results do, however, point to a diverse private sector in the ACT that may potentially cushion the blow of cuts.”
Mr Blyth expects the full impact of proposed public service job cuts wil be better reflected in about 18 months.
The national unemployment rate rose from 5.9 per cent to 6 per cent in June. Tasmania maintained the highest unemployment rate, at 7.4 per cent.
The ACT continues to have the lowest unemployment rate in Australia, at 3.6 per cent, closely followed by the Northern Territory at 3.9 per cent.
The labour force participation rate in the ACT increased by 1 per cent to 71.5 per cent; the national labour force participation rate remained steady at 64.7 per cent.
The new statistics come just one day after a Business Outlook report by Deloitte Access Economics said the ACT economy would have a delayed effect from public service job cuts.
The report said that while ACT unemployment was now among the lowest in Australia, public sector redundancies had barely begun and would start to have an impact in the next two years.
Mr Blyth said the decline of the mining boom was an influence on rising unemployment nationally, although the ACT was largely immune from this.
“The exposure to the mining sector is having an effect on numbers inter-state but we’re more of a high-end innovation, digital and services' economy,” Mr Blyth said.
ACT Treasurer Andrew Barr said the new figures showed the resilience of the ACT's economy in the face of public service job cuts by the federal government.
However, he said there was more pain to come, with many redundancies still to occur.
"Voluntary redundancies from the Commonwealth will lead to a number of Canberrans transferring their employment from the public to the private sector," he said.
"[This] is why the 2014-15 budget supports the ACT economy. [It] includes $150,000 to the private sector transition fund, which will provide advisory services and support the transition to the private sector."
Mr Barr said the ACT government was also investing $2.5 billion in a four-year infrastructure program to help create jobs in the Canberra region.
"The private sector will play a key role in keeping our economy strong, and all indications suggest they are up to the challenge," he said.
