The good news is that our economy is reopening. The bad news is Canada has a ways to go before recovering all the jobs lost this year.
The return journey will take months and, if there are headwinds or speed bumps, it could take years. That means even as things improve for most Canadians, a large minority will be unemployed or underemployed for some time, through no fault of their own. They are going to need support, and the traditional Employment Insurance program won’t cut it, since many of the unemployed do not qualify for it.
But first, the good news.
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The Canadian labour market has already recouped more than half its pandemic job losses. By April, 5.5 million workers had been affected by the economic shutdown – three million lost their jobs, and 2.5 million were still employed yet not working. But between April and July, the economy added more than 1.6 million jobs, according to Statistics Canada, and the number of people working less than half their usual hours fell below one million.
That means the number of workers affected by COVID-19 has dropped from 5.5 million to 2.3 million. And the unemployment rate, which rose from 5.6 per cent in February to 13.7 per cent in May, has fallen back to 10.9 per cent. There is every indication that those numbers will continue to decline in August and – assuming no health or economic speed bumps – through the fall.
To keep this moving in the right direction, the most important thing is continued progress on reopening the economy. And that in turn is dependent on smart public-health measures that allow reopening to happen, without sparking major COVID-19 outbreaks.
But even if everything goes right – steady economic recovery, no second pandemic spike, and strong demand from our chief export market in the United States – Canada’s job market won’t get back to where it was in February until late 2021 or 2022. The excess of job seekers over jobs is dropping fast, but hundreds of thousands of idle Canadian workers will not find work for some time.
The question is what should be done to help them.
The Trudeau government has yet to spell out the details but, later this month, it is going to allow the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) program to begin wrapping up, transferring responsibility for supporting most jobless people to a redesigned Employment Insurance program. In principle, that’s not a bad idea. It all comes down to how EI is redesigned.
CERB had to be created for two reasons. First, because EI’s processing systems couldn’t handle millions of people all losing their jobs, and all applying for benefits, at the same time. And second, because most unemployed Canadians don’t quality for EI. In 2018, only 42 per cent of the unemployed were eligible.
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The tricky balance Ottawa has to strike involves providing a robust safety net for those who are genuinely unemployed – of whom there will still be about two million in September, and hundreds of thousands next year – while not providing that help in a way that discourages people from working.
The best way to do that may be to relax the Employment Insurance rules. To qualify for EI now, a worker must have worked between 420 and 700 insurable hours, depending on their local unemployment rate, and have accumulated those hours either in the past year or since their last claim, whichever period is shorter. Temporarily relaxing the criteria would allow more people to qualify.
However, a lot of today’s income-less people used to be self-employed, and they may not qualify for EI, even under looser rules. Ottawa is going to have to create some kind of bridge program for them – and it has promised to do so.
Getting more unemployed people into the EI tent makes sense. EI allows people to work while receiving benefits, with only some of their earnings clawed back, which means that finding work is rewarded rather than punished. EI also offers programs for education and retraining – and given that a period of joblessness is the best time possible for someone to acquire new skills, the financial support for unemployed workers to do so should, if anything, be expanded.
The ideal outcome? A more accessible EI program, but one that, come the new year, few Canadians are applying for – not because the rules are too restrictive, but because the economic recovery has been so successful.
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OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.
Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.
Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.
Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.
Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.
Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.
According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.
That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.
People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.
That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.
Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.
That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
