OTTAWA (Reuters) –Canada lost more jobs than expected in April as fresh restrictions to contain a variant-driven third wave of COVID-19 weighed on employers, Statistics Canada data showed on Friday.
Some 207,100 jobs were lost in April, more than the average analyst prediction for a loss of 175,000. The unemployment rate climbed to 8.1%, missing analyst expectations of 7.8%. Employment is now 2.6% below pre-pandemic levels.
“This episode seemed to be a little more impactful in that it led to a big decline in full-time jobs and specifically in private-sector employment,” said Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.
“There were some heavy hits in education and culture and recreation. So it seems like the third wave bit into other sectors a little bit more deeply than the second wave.”
Full-time employment was down by 129,400 while part-time employment fell by 77,800 positions.
With many retailers shuttered in April and the restrictions also hitting hotels, food services and entertainment, service sector employment plunged by 195,400 jobs. Employment in the goods sector fell by 11,800.
As COVID-19 infections surged in April, a number of Canadian provinces imposed fresh restrictions, including shuttering or limiting non-essential businesses and closing schools. Cases are beginning to decline, but reopening is still weeks away and economists expect further job losses in May.
Canada has so far fully vaccinated just over 3% of its nearly 38 million residents, while more than 36% have received a first dose. By the end of June, Canada expects to have received 40 million doses.
Long-term unemployment increased by 4.6% to 486,000 people, which suggests some labor market scarring is beginning to show, said Leah Nord, a senior director at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
“The job prospects for displaced workers grow slimmer with every month in lockdown as more businesses throw in the towel,” she said in a statement.
Total hours worked fell 2.7% in April, while the number of people working less than half their usual hours jumped 27.2% to 288,000.
“The hours worked numbers were I think weaker than had been expected,” said Andrew Kelvin, chief Canada strategists at TD Securities. “I think it suggests a weaker April than the Bank of Canada would have had penciled in.”
The Bank of Canada in April sharply boosted its outlook for the Canadian economy and signaled interest rates could start to rise in 2022.
The Canadian dollar was trading 0.3% lower at 1.2187 to the greenback, or 82.05 U.S. cents, after touching on Thursday its strongest level in 3-1/2 years at 1.2141.
(Reporting by Julie Gordon in Ottawa; additional reporting by Steve Scherer, Fergal Smith and Nichola Saminather, Editing by Hugh Lawson, Mark Heinrich and Nick Zieminski)
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
