Shomporko Desk: Canada’s economy added just about a million jobs a month ago, as businesses reopened after COVID-19 shutdowns.
Statistics Canada reported Friday that the economy included 953,000 jobs during the month, adding to the 290,000 it included the earlier month. However, regardless of that two-month stretch, there are as yet 1.8 million fewer jobs in Canada today than there were in February.
The jobless rate tumbled to 12.3 per cent, down from the record high of 13.7 it hit in May.
More than half of the new jobs came from Ontario and Quebec, which included 378,000 and 248,000 jobs, individually. But every province introduced at least a small number of jobs.
The jobs were fairly evenly split between full- and part-time, with 488,000 of the former, and 465,000 of the latter.
At the lowest point in April, Statistics Canada says 5.5 million Canadian jobs were negatively impacted by the pandemic, with three million jobs completely gone, and another 2.5 million being reduced in terms of hours or wages in some way.
By June, that first number was down by about two million, but the data agency says there are still 3.1 million workers who’ve either lost their jobs or have been otherwise negatively impacted by COVID-19.
“Despite a lot of jobs being recouped since April, we’re not out of the woods yet,” economist Brandon Bernard at employment marketplace Indeed.com said of the numbers. Adding a million jobs in June on top of May’s gain means in broad terms Canada has “recouped about 40 per cent of initial job losses in two months [but] bringing back the other 60 per cent and mending the longer-term fallout could be more challenging.”
Photo credit: AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File
News source: CBC News
