Canada lost 17,000 jobs in May, pushing the unemployment rate up to 5.2 per cent, according to a Statistics Canada report released Friday morning.
The decline is primarily driven by a 77,000 loss in jobs among youth aged 15 to 24. Meanwhile, employment increased by 63,000 among people aged 25 to 54. Men in this age range represented two-thirds of this growth, gaining 43,000 jobs.
Statistics Canada says the overall employment rate was “virtually unchanged,” with only a 0.1 per cent decrease in May. This is the first time since August 2022 that Canada has lost jobs; 326,000 jobs were gained between September 2022 to January 2023.
Average wages rose to $33.25 — a 5.1 per cent year-over-year increase. While the inflation numbers for May have not yet been released, this marks the fourth month in a row when the year-over-year wage increase is on track to outpace inflation, which was 4.4 per cent in April.
Statistics Canada reports that the industries that lost the most jobs in May were business, building and other support services, which lost 31,000 jobs, equivalent to a 4.4 per cent decline overall.
There were also 40,000 fewer self-employed workers, according to the report.
Youth can’t find work
Shaziah Jinnah Morsette, president of the University of Calgary Students’ Union, has been seeing students at her university struggle to find employment first hand. She says one in five students it recently surveyed have been able to find full-time work this summer.
“Often, this isn’t just summer full-time work that they want; it’s summer full-time work that they need,” said Jinnah Morsette, whose union represents over 28,000 undergraduate students. “That cost-of-living crunch, that affordability crunch is being really felt by post-secondary students, and has been for years.”
A hiring sign is posted at Sansotei Ramen in downtown Toronto on Thursday. According to a Statistics Canada report, 17,000 jobs were lost in Canada in May. (Aloysius Wong/CBC)
Jinnah Morsette says, in order to make ends meet, students will often settle for jobs that don’t develop skills relevant to their field of study or the careers they’re pursuing.
Dawn Desjardins, chief economist at Deloitte, says this is not uncommon.
“You do get those first jobs where you’re really learning skills that you don’t necessarily have from your education,” she said. “So yes, I think there’s a mismatch in a lot of ways across the economy in the labour market.”
However, Desjardins believes that the reality is not as “deep and dark” as it first appears, and should not be an immediate cause for concern.
“We see a lot of volatility in these numbers,” she said.
In Alberta, the youth unemployment rate was 11.3 per cent this May — double the overall provincial unemployment rate of 5.7 per cent, according to Statistics Canada.
Statistics Canada reports a particularly acute change in youth employment for returning students, especially young women between the ages of 20 and 24. In this group, although 69.5 per cent were employed in May 2022, only 63.8 per cent are employed as of this May. That is four per cent lower than the pre-pandemic rate recorded in May 2019.
“The landscape has changed,” Jinnah Morsette said. “This isn’t anything like 25 years ago where you could easily find a job over the summer [and] work to pay your year of tuition ahead.”
She said that the need to work increased hours takes students’ time away from extracurriculars, volunteering and their studies — all experiences that assist students when looking for jobs after graduation.
“Students aren’t able to access those things because they’re having to choose to take on those extra hours to continue to cover their bills,” said Jinnah Morsette. “That does take a toll — not only on their grades, but also on their mental health and their well-being.
“That leaves the Alberta economy behind — it leaves our Canadian economy behind.”
Service surge?
Although unemployment rose overall this past month, certain industries experienced job growth — including accommodation and food services, which gained 10,000 jobs in May.
“We are seeing people come to the doors asking for work,” said Denis Pires, general manager of the restaurant Bairrada Churrasqueira in Toronto. “However, they’re not qualified for the positions that we’re looking for.”
But compared to last year when there were fewer customers and more safety concerns from staff because of the pandemic, Pires says the atmosphere has changed. At their restaurant, the challenge now is the need to spend additional time and resources to train the new hires.
“The government stimulus has stopped, which is a big thing,” said Pires. “I think that is promoting people to look for jobs and be more serious.”
David Glantz, owner of Archive Tattoo, sits in his office on Friday. Glantz says he’s looking for one more person to join his team of five. (Shawn Benjamin/CBC)
David Glantz, the owner of Archive Tattoo in Toronto, is looking to hire one more team member, but he isn’t too concerned.
“We’ve always hired for talent over over names,” he said. “Hiring was never really a tough thing.”
Since the pandemic, however, Glantz says they have moved away from a percentage-based system of earnings to a more flexible model.
“We’ve chosen to adapt to a new direction where everyone pays the chair fee for their space and that way they can sort of manage their own schedules,” he said. “If people work as much as they want to, they have the ability to control their own income, which can work out exceptionally well for them.”
Interest hikes could slow
Economists say that this rise in overall unemployment casts doubt on future interest rate hikes from the Bank of Canada.
“While one weak labour market report doesn’t make a trend, the [Bank of Canada] will be closely watching to see if other cracks start to form,” James Orlando, senior economist for TD Bank, wrote in an email.
Jay Zhao-Murray, an analyst for Monex Canada, said in a note because of the “details and composition of employment changes, we do not think it would materially change the Bank’s latest view on the economy.”
Why too many high-paying jobs make inflation go up | About That
Some 22,000 new jobs were added to the economy last month. The Bank of Canada believes this number is too strong. Andrew Chang talks with Stephanie Hughes from the Financial Post to understand how the numbers are throwing a curveball into the economy.
But one month of a weakening jobs market may not be enough.
“The Labour Force Survey is notoriously volatile,” Royce Mendes, managing director and head of macro strategy at Desjardins, wrote in an email. “It would need to be corroborated with a host of additional information to change our view that the Bank of Canada will hike again in July.”
“When things will kind of slow down a bit, we’ll be judging through a whole set of measures, trying to figure out whether things happen,” said Bank of Canada Deputy Governor Paul Beaudry in a speech to the Victoria Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. “But we won’t only look at one measure.”
LATROBE, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump’s campaign suggested he would begin previewing his closing argument Saturday night with Election Day barely two weeks away. But the former president kicked off his rally with a detailed story about Arnold Palmer, at one point even praising the late, legendary golfer’s genitalia.
Trump was campaigning in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where Palmer was born in 1929 and learned to golf from his father, who suffered from polio and was head pro and greenskeeper at the local country club.
Politicians saluting Palmer in his hometown is nothing new. But Trump spent 12 full minutes doing so at the top of his speech and even suggested how much more fun the night would be if Palmer, who died in 2016, could join him on stage.
“Arnold Palmer was all man, and I say that in all due respect to women,” Trump said. “This is a guy that was all man.”
Then he went even further.
“When he took the showers with other pros, they came out of there. They said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable,’” Trump said with a laugh. “I had to say. We have women that are highly sophisticated here, but they used to look at Arnold as a man.”
Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters before the speech that Trump planned to preview his closing argument against Vice President Kamala Harris and “start to get into that framing.” Candidates have traditionally used their final days on the campaign trail to sum up for the electorate why they deserve to win the White House.
Trump eventually hit many of his favorite campaign themes but didn’t offer much in the way of new framing of the race or why he should win it. He instead boasted of creating strong tax policies and a strong military during his first term in office.
He slammed Harris as “crazy” and added a profanity.
“You have to tell Kamala Harris that you’ve had enough, that you just can’t take it anymore, we can’t stand you anymore, you’re a s— vice president,” Trump said to roars of the crowd. “The worst. You’re the worst vice president. Kamala, you’re fired. Get the hell out of here.”
He also criticized Harris for suggesting during her unsuccessful run for president in 2020 that she’d support a ban on hydraulic fracking, which is important to Pennsylvania’s economy and a position Harris’ campaign says she no longer supports.
Trump invited on stage members of a local steelworkers union that endorsed him. He donned a construction hat with his name on it.
“He said, ‘It’s incredible what’s happened,’” Trump said of the Netanyahu call before moving to a criticism of President Joe Biden, saying that the Israeli prime minister “wouldn’t listen to Biden.”
Trump praised the raucous crowd, which was outside and at an airport, but also made a point of suggesting that there was more conspicuous security around him following two assassination attempts, saying, “They give you a little extra security nowadays, you notice?”
“I got more machine guns than I’ve ever seen — look at these guys,” he said referring to security. He was interrupted by cries from the crowd of “USA! USA!” before continuing, “We’ve got more guys, and every one of them is like central casting too, holy s—.”
Then he tied it back to Latrobe’s native son, adding, “They look like Arnold. Can’t look better than Arnold.”
ATLANTA (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris said Saturday that Republican former President Donald Trump was “cruel” for how he talked about the grieving family of a Georgia mother who died after waiting 20 hours for a hospital to treat her complications from an abortion pill, as she put combating restrictions on reproductive care at the center of her pitch to voters.
At a rally in Atlanta, Harris blamed Amber Thurman’s death on Georgia’s abortion restrictions that took effect after the Supreme Court in 2022, with three Trump-appointed justices, overturned Roe v. Wade. It comes as Harris is looking to the issue to propel support to Democrats, who have pledged to restore a national right to abortion if they win the White House and enough seats in Congress.
“Donald Trump still refuses to take accountability, to take any accountability, for the pain and the suffering he has caused,” Harris said.
Thurman’ story features at the center of one of Harris’ closing campaign ads, and her family attended her Atlanta rally, with her mother holding a photo of her daughter from the audience. Harris showed a clip of Trump saying during a recent Fox News Channel town hall, when he was asked about the Thurman family joining a separate media call, “We’ll get better ratings, I promise.”
“A grieving family, a grieving family, sharing the memory of their daughter with our nation. Where is the compassion?” she asked. “What we see continually from Donald Trump is exactly what that clip shows,” Harris added. “He belittles their sorrow, making it about himself and his television ratings. It is cruel.”
Before Harris became the Democratic nominee, Ian Summer, 19, planned on voting against Trump — but he wasn’t enthusiastic about President Joe Biden. Since Harris stepped into the race “she’s brought great energy,” Summer said. Summer is worried about restrictions on abortion access under Trump. “The fact that I could have a wife in the future that may not be able to receive the care that she needs, that’s a very scary thing,” he said.
Early voting is also underway in Georgia. More than 1.2 million ballots have been cast, either in person or by mail. Democrats hope an expansive organizing effort will boost Harris against Trump in the campaign’s final weeks. Harris referenced that former President Jimmy Carter recently voted by mail days after his 100th birthday.
“If Jimmy Carter can vote early, you can too,” Harris said.
Roderick Williams, 56, brought his three daughters to Harris’ Atlanta rally. His youngest daughter was born around the time former President Barack Obama entered office, and he hopes they can witness history again by seeing Harris become the first Black woman to be president.
“It’s important for them to see that anything’s possible,” Williams said.
Harris was joined at the rally by hometown music icon Usher, drawing again on star power as she looks to excite voters to the polls. Earlier Saturday she appeared with Lizzo on Saturday in the singer’s hometown of Detroit, marking the beginning of in-person voting and lavishing the city with praise after Trump recently disparaged it.
“All the best things were made in Detroit. Coney Dogs, Faygo and Lizzo,” the singer joked to a rally crowd, pointing to herself after listing off the hot dogs and soda that the city is famous for.
She said it was time to “put some respect on Detroit’s name” noting that the city had revolutionized the auto and music industries and adding that she’d already cast her ballot for Harris since voting early was “a power move.”
Heaps of praise for the Motor City came after Trump, the former president, insulted it during a recent campaign stop. And Harris continued the theme, saying of her campaign, “Like the people of Detroit, we have grit, we have excellence, we have history.”
Arms wide open as she took the stage, Harris let the crowd see she was wearing under her blazer a “Detroit vs. Everybody” T-shirt that the owner of the business that produces them gave her during a previous stop in the city earlier in the week. She also moved around the stage during her speech with a hand-held mic, not using a teleprompter.
More than 1 million Michigan residents have already voted by mail in the Nov. 5 election, and Harris predicted that Detroit turnout for early voting would be strong.
“Who is the capital of producing records?” Harris asked when imploring the crowd to set new highs for early voting tallies. “We are going to break some records here in Detroit today.”
She slammed Trump as unstable: “Somebody just needs to watch his rallies, if you’re not really sure how to vote.”
“We’re not going to get these 17 days back. On Election Day, we don’t want to have any regrets,” the vice president said.
Lizzo also told the crowd, “Mrs. Commander-in-Chief has a nice ring to it.”
“This is the swing state of all swing states, so every last vote here counts,” the singer said. Then, referencing her song of the same title, Lizzo added, “If you ask me if America is ready for its first woman president, I only have one thing to say: “It’s about damn time!”
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement that Harris needed Lizzo “to hide the fact that Michiganders were feeling good under President Trump – real wages were higher, prices were lower, and everyone was better off.”
Talona Johnson, a product manager from Rochester, Michigan, attended Harris’ rally and said that Harris “and her team are doing the things that are required to make sure that people are informed.”
“I believe she’s telling the truth. She’s trying to help the people,” said Johnson, who said she planned to vote for Harris and saw women’s rights as her top concern.
“I don’t necessarily agree with everything that she’s put out, but she’s better than the alternative,”
In comments to reporters before the rally, Harris said she was in Detroit “to thank all the folks for the work they are doing to help organize and register people to vote, and get them out to vote today. She also called Detroit “a great American city” with “a lot of hard-working folks that have grit and ambition and deserve to be respected.”
The vice president was asked about whether the Biden administration’s full-throated support for Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza might hurt her support in Michigan. Dearborn, near Detroit, is the largest city with an Arab majority in the nation.
“It has never been easy,” Harris said of Middle East policy. “But that doesn’t mean we give up.”
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Associated Press writers Matt Brown in Detroit, Charlotte Kramon in Atlanta and Will Weissert and Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents that assess Israel’s plans to attack Iran, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press. A fourth U.S. official said the documents appear to be legitimate.
The documents are attributed to the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency and note that Israel continues to move military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran’s blistering ballistic missile attack on Oct. 1. They were sharable within the “Five Eyes,” which are the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
The documents, which are marked top secret, were posted online to Telegram and first reported by CNN and Axios. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The investigation is also examining how the documents were obtained — including whether it was an intentional leak by a member of the U.S. intelligence community or obtained by another method, like a hack — and whether any other intelligence information was compromised, the official said. As part of that investigation, officials are working to determine who had access to the documents before they were posted, the official said.
The documents emerged as the U.S. has urged Israel to take advantage of its elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and press for a ceasefire in Gaza, and has likewise urgently cautioned Israel not to further expand military operations in the north in Lebanon and risk a wider regional war. However, Israel’s leadership has repeatedly stressed it will not let Iran’s missile attack go unanswered.
In a statement, the Pentagon said it was aware of the reports of the documents but did not have further comment.
