OTTAWA —
Nearly one million more Canadians had jobs in June, Statistics Canada says, as businesses forced to close by the pandemic began to reopen and the country continued to recoup steep losses over March and April.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey released Friday showed 953,000 jobs were added last month, including 488,000 full-time and 465,000 part-time positions. The unemployment rate fell to 12.3 per cent after hitting a record-high of 13.7 per cent in May.
As in May, even though more people found jobs, more people also looked for work as the labour force grew by about 786,000 after a gain of 491,000 in May, bringing it to within 443,000 of its pre-pandemic level.
Statistics Canada said the unemployment rate would have been 16.3 per cent had it included in unemployment counts those who wanted to work, but did not look for a job.
Job gains were made in every province, including by 378,000 in Ontario, marking the first increase since the COVID-19 shutdown, Statistics Canada said. It didn’t include any gains in Toronto as restrictions in that city loosened after the survey week.
Despite the good news, economist Jim Stanford said there remains a historic crisis in the job market with high unemployment and hundreds of thousands who have left the labour force altogether.
Also, gains nationally were not shared equally among groups, with women, youth and low-wage workers still slower to rebound, which Stanford said could be problematic if those jobs don’t ever come back.
“I worry about a coming second round of layoffs motivated not by health restrictions, but by companies deciding their businesses are going to be permanently smaller. So that would be qualitatively different and in a way worse,” said Stanford, director of the Centre for Future Work in Vancouver.
“We aren’t remotely out of the woods yet, but this was a really encouraging step forward.”
Some three million jobs were lost over March and April due to the pandemic, and 2.5 million more had their hours and earnings slashed. By last month, some 3.1 million were affected by the pandemic, including 1.4 million who weren’t at work due to COVID-19.
Brendon Bernard, an economist at Indeed Canada, said recapturing jobs at the same pace in the coming months will be tougher.
“A lot of areas of the economy still aren’t running at full capacity,” Bernard said. “So while doors may be open and customers might be coming in, business hasn’t come back to normal.”
Despite the overall improvement, the oil and gas industry continues to struggle.
The PetroLMI Division of Energy Safety Canada says direct oil and gas employment fell by more than 6,700 positions in June compared with May, with about 70 per cent of the net job losses in Alberta.
Compared with a year earlier, employment in the oil and employment sector was down 17 per cent.
The overall job losses were unprecedented in speed and depth compared with previous recessions, Statistics Canada said, and the rebound to date sharper than previous downturns.
Ottawa’s response has been equally unprecedented: a deficit of at least $343.2 billion this fiscal year as the Trudeau Liberals dole out some $230 billion in emergency aid.
In June, 28.3 per cent of Canadians aged 15 to 69 reported receiving some form of federal aid since mid-March, Statistics Canada said. Meanwhile, the proportion of households reporting difficulty paying the bills dropped to 20.1 per cent in June from 22.5 per cent in May.
“Without the federal government being there to support Canadian workers, Canadian businesses and the Canadian provinces and territories, we would be in a bigger mess in this country right now,” Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress said in an interview this week.
The Bank of Canada and federal government believe the worst of the economic pain from the pandemic is behind the country, but Canada will face high unemployment and low growth until 2021.
In a statement, federal Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough touted the overall jobs numbers as a sign the government’s plan was working, before adding many Canadians still “face real challenges during this time.”
She and other ministers are now reshaping programs so fewer workers stay on the $80-billion emergency benefit, and more get tied to jobs through the $82-billion wage subsidy program.
“We understand the need for those emergency programs. We also understand as we reopen and recover, we have to move away from emergency programs and into stimulus and recovery,” said Leah Nord, senior director of workforce strategies for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
She said there are other issues to resolve around health and safety in the workplace, transit, and child care to help more Canadians get back to work.
In provinces where daycares reopened for children five and under, employment levels returned to pre-pandemic levels for fathers in June, but not for mothers. Similarly, mothers with children under 18 were more likely than fathers to work less than half their usual hours in June, Statistics Canada said.
Job gains have come at a faster clip for men. Their unemployment rate hit 12.1 per cent in June compared to 12.7 per cent for women. And the underutilization rate — which counts those who are unemployed, those who want a job but didn’t look for one, and those working less than half their usual hours — was 28.3 for women and 25.5 per cent for men.
Economist Armine Yalnizyan said the numbers underscore the need to provide child care as well as options for schooling in the fall so mothers can work.
The alternative, she said, could pull back any economic gains.
“It means that even if there are jobs, some women won’t be able to take them because there’s no way they can leave their kids,” said Yalnizyan, a fellow on the future of workers at the Atkinson Foundation.
“So we are looking at the potential for an economic depression instead of talking about paces of recovery and pivoting to building to better.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2020.
Here’s a quick look at Canada’s June employment (numbers from the previous month in brackets):
Unemployment rate: 12.3 per cent (13.7)
Employment rate: 56.0 per cent (52.9)
Participation rate: 63.8 per cent (61.4)
Number unemployed: 2,452,600 (2,619,200)
Number working: 17,427,400 (16,474,500)
Youth (15-24 years) unemployment rate: 27.5 per cent (29.4)
Men (25 plus) unemployment rate: 9.5 per cent (11.1)
Women (25 plus) unemployment rate: 10.4 per cent (11.8)
Here are the jobless rates last month by province (numbers from the previous month in brackets):
Newfoundland and Labrador 16.5 per cent (16.3)
Prince Edward Island 15.2 per cent (13.9)
Nova Scotia 13.0 per cent (13.6)
New Brunswick 9.9 per cent (12.8)
Quebec 10.7 per cent (13.7)
Ontario 12.2 per cent (13.6)
Manitoba 10.1 per cent (11.2)
Saskatchewan 11.6 per cent (12.5)
Alberta 15.5 per cent (15.5)
British Columbia 13.0 per cent (13.4)
Statistics Canada also released seasonally adjusted, three-month moving average unemployment rates for major cities. It cautions, however, that the figures may fluctuate widely because they are based on small statistical samples. Here are the jobless rates last month by city (numbers from the previous month in brackets):
St. John’s, N.L. 11.6 per cent (10.5)
Halifax 11.9 per cent (10.5)
Moncton, N.B. 9.1 per cent (8.8)
Saint John, N.B. 11.5 per cent (11.1)
Saguenay, Que. 12.9 per cent (13.3)
Quebec City 11.9 per cent (11.9)
Sherbrooke, Que. 11.6 per cent (10.9)
Trois-Rivieres, Que. 12.6 per cent (13.0)
Montreal 15.1 per cent (14.0)
Gatineau, Que. 11.0 per cent (11.0)
Ottawa 9.0 per cent (7.7)
Kingston, Ont. 12.4 per cent (10.8)
Peterborough, Ont. 9.5 per cent (9.5)
Oshawa, Ont. 11.8 per cent (10.1)
Toronto 13.6 per cent (11.2)
Hamilton, Ont. 12.1 per cent (10.3)
St. Catharines-Niagara, Ont. 12.9 per cent (12.6)
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Ont. 12.2 per cent (10.3)
Brantford, Ont. 12.6 per cent (11.3)
Guelph, Ont. 14.9 per cent (12.9)
London, Ont. 12.6 per cent (11.7)
Windsor, Ont. 15.2 per cent (16.7)
Barrie, Ont. 10.8 per cent (11.6)
Greater Sudbury, Ont. 9.4 per cent (8.4)
Thunder Bay, Ont. 11.1 per cent (10.4)
Winnipeg 11.7 per cent (10.3)
Regina 11.6 per cent (10.6)
Saskatoon 14.1 per cent (12.4)
Calgary 15.6 per cent (13.4)
Edmonton 15.7 per cent (13.6)
Kelowna, B.C. 10.2 per cent (9.6)
Abbotsford-Mission, B.C. 8.8 per cent (7.5)
Vancouver 13.1 per cent (10.7)
Victoria 11.0 per cent (10.1)
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2020.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
