Canada’s economy lost 30,600 jobs in July, Statistics Canada said Friday.
It’s the second month in a row of lost jobs, coming on the heels of 43,000 jobs lost in June. Economists had been expecting the economy to eke out a slight gain of about 15,000 jobs, but instead the employment pool shrank.
Goods producing industries actually added about 23,000 jobs during the month, but that relative strength was more than offset by a large loss of 53,000 jobs in the service sector.
The health-care sector was a major drag, as it lost 22,000 positions. After more than two years of caring for Canadians during a pandemic, burnout and job churn in the sector is becoming a major issue. More than 10 per cent of all nurses called in sick at least once during the month, and more than 20 per cent worked paid overtime to make up for it, the data agency said.
Nursing vacancies in early 2022 were more than triple the level of five years earlier, Statistics Canada said.
“The job decline in health care has not gone unnoticed, as it has been due to voluntary quits rather than layoffs,” said economist Tu Nguyen with accounting and consultancy firm RSM Canada.
“The exodus of burnt-out health-care workers has led to a surge in temporary closure of emergency rooms. This has far and wide ramifications, [because] when people are not taken care of, it leads to workers across industries calling out sick, having to take time off to care for sick family members, or even exiting the workforce in more extreme circumstances.”
Despite the decline, the jobless rate held steady at its record low of 4.9 per cent, because while there were fewer jobs, there were fewer people looking for work, too.
As of the end of July, the data agency says there were about one million people in Canada officially classified as unemployed, which means they want a job but don’t have one. Another 426,000 people wanted a job but didn’t look for one during the month, so they are not officially counted among the ranks of the unemployed.
The million or so people without a job compare with 19.5 million Canadians who had some sort of paid work during the month.
Canada’s soft job market stands in stark contrast to that in the U.S., where the economy added 528,000 jobs last month. That’s twice as many as economists were expecting.
While the monthly job number is always volatile, and is especially so in the summer months, Tiago Figueiredo, an economist with Desjardins says the underwhelming number suggests Canada’s “labour market slammed the brakes in July.”
“With that said, the labour market still remains tight and there’s scope for a further weakness in employment as economic growth slows.”
While the economy is shedding jobs overall, many sectors are expanding robustly, such as aviation, says Arvin Nagules with Menzies Aviation. (CBC)
While the economy has fewer workers today than it did in May, many sectors and employers report that hiring remains robust. The tourism sector was hit perhaps harder than any other sector by the pandemic, but as demand returns, so is the need for workers.
Laura Pallotta, vice-president with Marriott Hotels, says the chain is currently trying to hire as many as 1,000 people across the country, even as the overall economic outlook darkens.
“We believe that we need to continue to hire back positions and roles [because] we see demand for Canada over the next number of years will continue to be strong,” she told CBC News in an interview.
Arvin Nagules, senior vice-president with Menzies Aviation, which provides a variety of airport services across Canada and abroad, says his industry is also trying to ramp staffing levels up quickly.
He says airlines and airports have done as much hiring in the past two or three months as they would normally do in a number of years. “It’s not just the airline industry. Everyone’s fighting for the same group of people,” he said in an interview.
Economist Brendon Bernard with job search firm Indeed is taking the monthly drop with a grain of salt — noting that the decline is within the 34,000 margin of error for Statscan’s job survey — but it’s clear that something is changing in the job market.
“Rather than showing up in higher unemployment, the recent soft job numbers have shown up in declining labour force participation instead,” he said. More than 200,000 people have left the labour force since march, and the participation rate among workig-age people fell 0.2 percentage points to 64.7 per cent. That means less than two thirds of people in their working age years are choosing to do so.
“Not what we’d expect from a wave of layoffs [but] at the same time, the pace of gains from earlier this year appear to have run out of gas,” Bernard said.
“Now the question is whether the car will stay in neutral.”
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Darcy Kuemper made 16 saves for his first shutout of the season and 32nd overall, helping the Los Angeles Kings beat the Nashville Predators 3-0 on Monday night.
Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist and Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala also scored. The Kings have won two of their last three.
Juuse Saros made 24 saves for the Predators. They are 1-2-1 in their last four.
Kopitar opened the scoring with 6:36 remaining in the opening period. Saros denied the Kings captain’s first shot, but Kopitar collected the rebound below the goal line and banked it off the netminder’s skate.
Fiala, a former Predator, made it 2-0 35 seconds into the third.
The Kings held Nashville to just three third-period shots on goal, the first coming with 3:55 remaining and Saros pulled for an extra attacker.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Monday:
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DEVILS 3 OILERS 0
EDMONTON, Alta. (AP) — Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his NHL career, helping the New Jersey Devils close their western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored. The Devils improved to 8-5-2. They have won three of their last four after a four-game skid.
Calvin Pickard made 13 saves for Edmonton. The Oilers had won two straight.
