WA jobs figures 'masking' reality: fed MP

Improved March unemployment figures don't reflect redundancy packages that have kept some West Australians from the dole queue, Member for Perth Alannah MacTiernan says.

Despite a worsening outlook for the all-important iron ore sector - with Treasurer Joe Hockey factoring in the possibility of a further $US15 a tonne price drop in the May 12 budget - WA still has the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

It was among only three states where unemployment fell in March, down from 5.7 per cent to 5.5 per cent.

But Ms MacTiernan says she suspects WA's job market is weaker than it appears.

"The unemployment figures today, I think, don't think reflect what is happening here," she said.

"To some extent the job losses have been masked by the redundancy packages that people have and I think it's going to take a couple of months to show up in the figures.

"The number of people who have become unemployed in the last couple of months, the number of small businesses - drycleaners, delis, restaurants - are saying that over the past three months, business is going down.

"You can see across the economy, people are tightening their belts. It's going to have a real consequence."

Opposition leader Bill Shorten agreed WA's March figures were nothing to get excited about.

"You can take a month-by-month analysis, I take a longer term analysis," he said.

"When Tony Abbott got elected, unemployment in WA had a four in front of it. Now it has a five."

Citing the loss of more than 25,000 jobs in WA's resources sector in the past year, Ms MacTiernan said the federal government needed to devise a plan to ease the state's painful transition away from mining jobs.

Recently flagged job losses in the sector include more than 100 positions at Sinosteel Mid West Corporation's Blue Hills Mungada mine and almost 600 positions with Atlas Iron.

Atlas' contractors, however, are reportedly trying to "rescue" the company, including reducing or delaying charges until prices improve.