One Million Canadians Lost Their Jobs In March
HALIFAX – More than 1 million Canadians lost their jobs last month, and more than 2 million saw their hours slashed, as COVID-19 spurred record-shattering changes in the country’s job market.
Statistics Canada released its employment numbers for March Wednesday, providing a much fuller picture of how severely the global pandemic has rocked the country’s workforce.
The agency said in its report that “unprecedented” mass business closures in March “had a clear and immediate impact on the Canadian labour market.”
That impact is shown most starkly by the 5.3 percent drop in employment in the country last month. According to Statistics Canada, 1,011,000 fewer people worked in March, as the country’s employment rate fell to its lowest point since April of 1997.
Meanwhile, unemployment shot up by 2.2 percent, ending the month at 7.8 percent. Statistics Canada says this was largest one-month increase in unemployment since the agency started tracking the number in 1976.
Factor in people who wanted to work but didn’t even bother looking for a job and unemployment climbed to 8.9 percent.
Of those people who kept their jobs, Statistics Canada says 1.3 million didn’t work any hours at all during the one-week reference period it uses to calculate March numbers. Another 800,000 worked less than half of their usual hours.
Altogether, Statistics Canada says a quarter (23 percent) of the country’s potential labour force was unemployed, working reduced hours, or was simply out of the labour force completely in March.
That translates to 3.1 million Canadians who saw their work significantly affected by COVID-19 and the health measures put in place to stop it.
Statistics Canada predicted that these trends will be even more pronounced after April job data is released.
Support Progrmas Must Come Quicker, Chamber Says
Speaking at his daily press conference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said such stark numbers won’t be a surprise to many Canadians.
“We’ve all seen the impact of COVID-19. We all knew this was going to be a tough time… but that’s no comfort if you’re out of a job; if you’re having difficulty making ends meet,” he said.
Trudeau said he expects the country to come “roaring back” once the COVID-19 pandemic passes. He said the government’s 75 percent wage subsidy for businesses and emergency benefit for people who have lost their jobs will help with that.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, called on the federal government to make its support programs available quicker.
“Countless more jobs will be lost if we can’t urgently get employers the wage supports they need. However, businesses are still weeks away from receiving the funds they require to support their employees,” the organization said in a news release.
“We ask Parliament to rapidly approve the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and we urge the government to get these urgently-needed funds moving to businesses now.”
Largest employment losses among vulnerable workers
According to Statistics Canada, workers in “less-secure, lower-quality jobs” were more likely to lose work in March.
The number of people working temporary jobs fell by 14.5 percent (274,000 people) last month, while the number of people working permanent jobs dropped by 5.3 percent (749,500 people).
Temporary employees who did keep their jobs were also more likely to lose all or the majority of their usual work hours than people in permanent positions.
Nearly 22 percent of temporary workers lost significant hours, while less than 12 percent of permanent workers did.
Similar trends also showed through between non-unionized and unionized workers, and lower-paid and higher-paid workers.