Figures obtained by The Canberra Times from the Australian Public Service Commission show that 5700 bureaucrats have nominated to work at a different agency out of 129,732 permanent staff.

Of these, almost a third have been seconded to Services Australia, which has undergone a rapid expansion to meet a flood of demand from people suddenly rendered jobless by physical distancing measures imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Prime Minster Scott Morrison confirmed on Tuesday that more than a million people have lodged claims for JobSeeker support.

To handle the workload, Services Australia has taken on an extra 12,000 people since March 16 to support COVID-19-related activities, including the redeployment of 3400 staff within the agency as well as hiring 1546 casuals, 3125 labour hire workers and 2103 staff provided by service delivery partners.

"Services Australia has three large contracts with service delivery partners, so part of the mobilisation was to have those partners mobilise a workforce to support us," Services Australia chief executive officer Rebecca Skinner told a Senate committee hearing on April 30.

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The agency, along with the Department of Health and the Australian Taxation Office, is at the forefront of the federal government's actions to cope with the COVID-19 outbreak and its huge knock-on effects for the economy, which has been sent into virtual freefall.

Mr Morrison said national output was set to decline by 11 per cent and Treasury has forecast the unemployment rate to double to 10 per cent. In all, about 1.5 million jobs are expected to be lost.

In addition, 728,640 firms employing around five million workers have applied for JobKeeper assistance and 584,000 have accessed cash flow support.

The ATO, which is implementing the JobKeeper scheme and facilitating other initiatives including the cash flow boost and the program providing early access to superannuation, has in the last seven weeks hired an extra 1169 staff, including 191 permanents, 73 labour hire workers, 37 non-ongoing employees and 868 casual recruits.

While the ATO would normally take on extra short-term staff at this time to help with preparations for the end of financial year, it has brought forward the hiring of Tax Time casuals to assist with the extra workload generated by JobKeeper and other programs.

The COVID-19-related emergency measures are due to be wound up in September and the government has given no indication that it would consider extending them, which could theoretically set an end point to APS redeployments.

But the government is facing increasing calls to commit to further economic assistance beyond the closure of these programs amid warnings from economists and business leaders that it is likely to be two or three years before economic activity returns to pre-pandemic levels.

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