OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says the country added 94,000 jobs in July as public health restrictions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic continued to be lifted, but economists warned there is still a “long slog” toward a full recovery ahead.
The federal agency said Friday that the job gains caused the unemployment rate to fall to its lowest level since March of this year, at 7.5 per cent for July compared with 7.8 per cent in June.
The gains were seen primarily in Ontario and in the service sector, with 35,000 jobs added in the accommodation and food industry. Full-time work, which rose by 83,000 or half a percentage point across multiple sectors, also delivered growth.
Many economists had expected the country to add at least 100,000 new jobs during July and thought the unemployment rate would sit around 7.4 per cent last month.
Despite falling short of those predictions, CIBC senior economist Royce Mendes said “there’s not a whole lot to complain about when the economy creates almost 100,000 jobs in a month.”
“That’s a sign of recovery, but not a sign of mission accomplished,” he said.
July’s increase, he said, continues the pattern begun with the 231,000 jobs added in June and can be considered a strong gain, making up for employment losses incurred during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But Canada is still 246,400 jobs, or 1.3 per cent, shy of pre-pandemic employment levels seen in February 2020 and threats to the economy’s recovery loom.
The number of people considered long-term unemployed — those out of work for more than six months — in July was 244,000 higher than before the pandemic and accounted for 27.8 per cent of total unemployment. Of that number, more than two-thirds have been out of work for a year or longer, Statistics Canada said.
Mendes pointed to scores of companies seeking workers and the virulent Delta variant as potential barriers to recovery.
“It might sound odd to be discussing labour shortages at a time when the unemployment rate is still very elevated, but generous government support, concerns about contracting COVID in high contact work settings and childcare duties are among the reasons there are labour shortages out there,” he said.
Restaurants, retailers and hospitality companies have all reported that hiring has been difficult because Canadians are seeking more stable employment, jobs they can complete from home and assurances that their workplaces won’t be temporarily closed if another wave of the virus arrives.
Some have had to resort to remaining closed, hiking pay or offering signing bonuses, extra vacation and other incentives to entice workers.
Even if another wave comes, Mendes doesn’t expect another economic contraction or major round of job losses to materialize because vaccinations are keeping large numbers of Canadians out of hospital and the government is opting for more targeted measures to quell the virus.
He also sees room for hiring growth in sectors that already saw big gains like food and accommodations and areas that haven’t yet seen a boost like recreation and culture.
But he is still cautious around how much of a recovery these sectors will experience.
“We should expect that over the course of this year and even well into next year, the level of employment in those high-contact service industries will not reach pre-pandemic levels because there will still likely be some restrictions needed to keep virus cases low,” he said.
“When we look out on the horizon, the way the economy might look when it’s fully healed, will be very different than it looked pre-pandemic.”
Meanwhile, Douglas Porter, BMO Capital Markets’ chief economist, predicted the country will see one more employment bump before it settles into a “long slog” as job gains tied to reopening dissipate and the economy begins to more seriously deal with the Delta variant of COVID-19.
He saw positive signs in the number of full-time positions added and the 1.3 per cent increase in total hours worked, though that figure was still 2.7 per cent below pre-pandemic levels.
“It will only take a few more reports like today’s to get employment all the way back to pre-pandemic highs,” Porter said in a note to investors.
“But this is a sturdy step in the right direction.”
Here’s a quick look at Canada’s July employment (numbers from the previous month in brackets):
Unemployment rate: 7.5 per cent (7.8)
Employment rate: 60.3 per cent (60.1)
Participation rate: 65.2 per cent (65.2)
Number unemployed: 1,521,400 (1,591,600)
Number working: 18,883,900 (18,789,900)
Youth (15-24 years) unemployment rate: 11.6 per cent (13.6)
Men (25 plus) unemployment rate: 7.1 per cent (7.2)
Women (25 plus) unemployment rate: 6.4 per cent (6.5)
Here are the jobless rates last month by province (numbers from the previous month in brackets):
Newfoundland and Labrador 12.7 per cent (13.0)
Prince Edward Island 9.6 per cent (12.5)
Nova Scotia 8.4 per cent (9.0)
New Brunswick 9.3 per cent (9.3)
Quebec 6.1 per cent (6.3)
Ontario 8.0 per cent (8.4)
Manitoba 6.1 per cent (7.6)
Saskatchewan 7.0 per cent (6.7)
Alberta 8.5 per cent (9.3)
British Columbia 6.6 per cent (6.6)
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. 8.3 per cent (8.8)
Halifax 8.7 per cent (8.8)
Moncton, N.B. 6.7 per cent (7.8)
Saint John, N.B. 8.8 per cent (8.2)
Saguenay, Que. 5.9 per cent (6.5)
Quebec City 4.0 per cent (5.1)
Sherbrooke, Que. 5.2 per cent (5.1)
Trois-Rivieres, Que. 4.6 per cent (4.4)
Montreal 7.5 per cent (7.7)
Gatineau, Que. 5.6 per cent (6.3)
Ottawa 7.6 per cent (8.2)
Kingston, Ont. 8.5 per cent (8.9)
Peterborough, Ont. 6.5 per cent (5.9)
Oshawa, Ont. 8.4 per cent (9.0)
Toronto 9.8 per cent (9.8)
Hamilton, Ont. 7.4 per cent (8.1)
St. Catharines-Niagara, Ont. 10.6 per cent (11.5)
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Ont. 7.0 per cent (6.5)
Brantford, Ont. 6.1 per cent (6.5)
Guelph, Ont. 8.4 per cent (9.4)
London, Ont. 9.1 per cent (10.0)
Windsor, Ont. 11.1 per cent (11.8)
Barrie, Ont. 7.5 per cent (8.4)
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2021.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
