CANBERRA’S a great city unless you happen to find yourself out of a job.

I was unemployed in Canberra for a few months in 2008 and can remember calling a business connection to discuss a proposal I had for him… let’s say it was Bill Bloggs.

I didn’t have his mobile number so I rang his office. The call went like this:

“Hello Bill Bloggs Enterprises.”

“Hello, I’d like to speak with Bill if I could… is he in the office?”

“I’ll have to check, can I say who’s calling?”

“Sure, my name is Mark Parton.”

“…and where are you calling from Mark?”

Tough question to get when you don’t have a job.

“Ummm, I’m actually calling from the lounge room, but I may move to the kitchen during the call.”

“No, I mean which company are you calling from?”

“Well….I arrr…I’m unemployed at the moment.”

The tone of the call changed from that point.

Figures out last week showed that unemployment is on the rise in the ACT. The July figure from the ABS has us up 0.1 per cent to 3.9 per cent and it may well get worse. Now it must be said that jobs were lost in almost every State and Territory, but you’d have to suggest that the worst may still be ahead in public service land.

I’m one of the few who believes that we have just about bottomed out and that better times are closer, but maybe I’m just a crazy optimist. I’m a Raiders fan, so by definition I am a crazy optimist.

If you’re job hunting at the moment, good luck with it. Thank your lucky stars that you don’t have to apply for 40 jobs a month to stay in the system. I think Eric Abetz is going to get rolled on that one, which must be a good thing.