The Canberra postcodes most reliant on JobKeeper

More than 844,000 businesses have now had their applications processed for the $70 billion scheme, which is expected to cover 3.5 million.

A list of postcodes with the most applications approved shows 2617 - which covers Belconnen, Kaleen, Giralang, Evatt, McKellar, Bruce and Lawson - has the highest number of applications in Canberra, with 649.

The postcode 2602 - which takes in Ainslie, Lyneham, Dickson, O'Connor, Hackett, Downer and Watson - had the next highest number of approved applications, at 638.

2913 - which covers Ngunnawal, Nicholls, Palmerston, Casey and Franklin - came in third with 631 approvals.

2615 - covering Charnwood, Spence, MacGregor, Dunlop, Higgins, Holt, Fraser, Latham, Flynn, Melba and Florey - had 603 applications approved.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the take-up showed the scheme was an economic lifeline to millions of Australians and hundreds of thousands of businesses.

"Treasury estimate that in the absence of the $70 billion JobKeeper payment the unemployment rate would be 5 percentage points higher," he said.

But Glen Hyde from the Belconnen Community Council said the data was an indication of just how businesses in the Belconnen region were suffering.

"We have a large service and restaurant industry, then there's retail and of course we have a lot a lot of coffee shops in the area," Mr Hyde said.

"While most are in the town centre you have to look at what's happening at Jamison, Hawker, Holt, Kippax, Charnwood and Kaleen. What do those areas have in common? Clubs who are all drawing down on the JobKeeper program.

"We are the largest district and most populous district and while we might not be the largest business hub in the ACT we are significant."

Labor MP Andrew Leigh, whose electorate of Fenner takes in Belconnen, said the figures demonstrated the toll the restrictions had taken on the area.

"Nationally there's been one in three hospitality jobs lost and one in four jobs in the arts and recreation sector gone and there's heavy representation of both those sectors in the Belconnen area," Dr Leigh said.

Dr Leigh said what the data did not show was the significant shortcomings in the Morrison government's safety net.

"I've been in touch with businesses in the area who've pointed out a significant number of their workers are temporary migrants. They might be working part-time while studying at the University of Canberra," Dr Leigh said.

"They've come from overseas but they still need to put food on the table and they're being excluded from the scheme which means the firms that employ them are under much more pressure than they would otherwise be."

Dr Leigh said the scheme needed to be extended to migrant workers.

"We need to recognise the massive benefits international students bring to our universities and the work they do in the local community needs to be respected," he said.

"Scott Morrison telling international students to 'just go home' will have long repercussions for how international students see Australia."

Kim Jongsun runs Cafe 2617, in the heart of the Belconnen town centre.

But despite his cafe sharing a name with the postcode that has the most applications for JobKeeper in Canberra, his staff have been excluded from the program.

"We tried to do JobKeeper but all our staff are international," Mr Jongsun said.

He had to let four staff go for two months while the cafe could only open for takeaway.

He was intensely grateful to his landlord, who gave him a discount on rent.

"That was a happy part," Mr Jongsun said.

Since restrictions have eased, he's been able to bring two staff back on although he struggled to make a go of it under the 10-person rule.

"We're bigger than 80 square metres so I can have 20 customers now, but I've just got to make sure there's one person per four square metres. For the last three weeks we've gotten used to it and we'll follow what the government says," Mr Jongsun said.

At the nearby Chatterbox cafe, manager Harry Yang says JobKeeper has been a lifeline for his business.

"It's really helped a lot," Mr Yang said.

He has two staff working at the moment and with 20 people allowed to sit in and eat, the cafe is normally heavily booked between 9am and 12pm.

With a large number of office buildings in the Belconnen town centre, Mr Yang said while the number of people working from home has had an impact on his business. However he says people have gone out of their way to support small businesses in the area.

"Lots of people are working from home, but lucky for us they don't live far from the office and can still come here. They're trying to look out for small business," Mr Yang said.