The Murray region lost 1600 jobs in the same period, which predated the NSW-Victoria border being closed.

However, there is concern that the Australian Bureau of Statistics' estimate of unemployment is not capturing the full extent of job losses.

Business NSW Riverina-Murray regional manager Andrew Cottrill said the ABS figures had shown significant drops in unemployment in some regions, which raised questions about accuracy.

"We're looking at Illawarra putting on 2600 jobs since the start of the crisis and Central West putting on 3900 jobs," he said.

"For the life of me, I can't understand how those numbers are drawn

"I would certainly say that the Riverina's unemployment rate of 6.4 per cent, up from 4.6 per cent, is masked by JobKeeper and underemployment where people are not working the hours that they want to work."

Sydney consulting firm Taylor Fry has estimated that 33.97 per cent of businesses within Wagga City Council boundaries are making use of the JobKeeper wage subsidies, currently at $1500 per fortnight per worker.

The Wagga businesses community's use of jobkeeper was below the average regional rate observed in the Taylor Fry report.

"At least 40 per cent of businesses in [regional] areas are receiving JobKeeper payments and in some cases the proportion is much higher," Taylor Fry principal ALan Greenfield said.

"About 35 per cent of Australian businesses have applied for JobKeeper and the payment supports 28 per cent of the employed workforce, so the subsidy is fundamental to the economy right now."

Areas on the NSW coast that are highly dependent on tourism, such as Byron Bay, had 60 per cent or more businesses on JobKeeper.

Mr Cottrill said Wagga's status as a regional service centre could have helped, and Junee's lower rate of JobKeeper could be explained by its reliance on larger employers such as the prison.

"Wagga has a number of businesses that would have been less impact as they service the agricultural industry, which has carried on very strongly," he said.

The ABS figures suggested that April was the worst month for unemployment in the Riverina so far during the pandemic, with a spike of 4600 job losses.

Mr Cottrill said it was possible that the region could have made it through the worst of the economic downturn from the pandemic, but only if infection rates continued to stay low.

"I do think we have turned a corner, and I can see a lot of businesses and industries bouncing back," he said.

"My fear is that we are seeing lockdown mark two in Victoria, we are seeing the spread of cases in Victoria and we need to make sure that does not happen in NSW as many businesses would not survive a second lockdown.

"I can see light at the end of the tunnel, I can see businesses coming back but we absolutely have to make sure that everybody is doing the right thing...if we can stay clear of the virus, it will be a quick recovery in my view with the exception of international tourism."