Mr Barr on Tuesday confirmed the government would be pumping an extra $8 million into its Jobs for Canberrans fund, providing temporary, causal employment for more than 450 locals.

The program, which targets Canberrans who have lost their jobs amid the coronavirus lockdown but have been ineligible for the Commonwealth's JobKeeper payments, had an original budget of $20 million.

The program looks set to be expanded even further, with Mr Barr saying there would be an "ongoing need" to grow the public service following the mass job losses caused by the COVID-19 shutdown.

He said the government was conscious of the need to provide employment opportunities for women and young people, two of the demographics which have suffered the most amid the pandemic.

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The Jobs for Canberrans program has created jobs to complete specific tasks, including bushfire recovery work in Namadgi National Park and answering calls to Access Canberra's COVID-19 hotline.

Mr Barr said ACT government directorates had advised him that they had capacity and a need to take on extra staff.

"If there ever is a time for government to invest in rebuilding the economy, it is right now," Mr Barr said.

"This is the rainy day. This is the time that the government needs to step up to provide employment and boost economic activity."

While those hired under the program are only filling temporary positions, Mr Barr said he didn't expect to see them again looking for a job after their contracts expired. He said the casual workers would be given opportunities to apply for permanent positions in the ACT Public Service.

The Community and Public Sector Union last month wrote to Mr Barr, urging him to expand the program amid overwhelming demand from job seekers.

The public sector union's regional secretary, Madeline Northam, welcomed Tuesday's announcement.

"This is a really tangible way that the ACT government is helping our community, both with the projects they are delivering and by keeping Canberrans in work and feeding money back into our economy to keep us going," she said.

Ms Northam sat on the Jobs for Canberrans advisory group and is also a Labor candidate at the upcoming ACT election.

Opposition business and employment spokesman Andrew Wall said the Barr government should be doing more to support Canberra's small businesses.

"While adding jobs to the ACT public service is welcome news to many, it's cold comfort for almost 10,000 Canberrans who are out of work and the local and family businesses that employed them," Mr Wall said.

"Now more than ever we need to do everything we can to back family and local businesses, because the jobs and livelihoods of thousands of Canberrans depend on them.