Maritime Cities Lost 20,000 Jobs In April
HALIFAX—Unemployment in Maritime cities continued to climb last month as the Canadian economy suffered unprecedented job losses brought on by COVID-19.
According to Statistics Canada, the three largest cities in the Maritimes lost nearly 20,000 jobs in April, spurred by massive layoffs in the retail, accommodation, and food-services industries.
Halifax saw 12,500 jobs disappear in April as the number of people with work sank to 226,000 (from 238,500 in March).
Those losses caused the city’s unemployment rate to rocket up by more than 27 percent in one month, spiking from 6.8 percent in March to 8.9 percent in April. The city’s 8.9 percent unemployment rate is more than 70 percent higher than it was in April of 2019.
The story is similar for New Brunswick’s major cities.
Moncton lost 2,800 jobs in April (leaving the number of people with jobs at 80,000), as unemployment in that city rose from 5.7 percent in March to 7 percent last month.
Saint John, meanwhile, saw its unemployment rate shoot up by 26 percent, from 7.3 percent in March to 9.5 percent in April.
That lead to 3,300 lost jobs in Saint John, as the number of people working in the city dropped to 60,300.
Job Losses ‘Far Exceed’ Previous Recessions
The nationwide unemployment rate sat at 13 percent in April, as close to 2 million jobs across the country. Added to the 1 million jobs that were lost in March, Canada has now seen more than 3 million jobs vanish as a result of the COVID-19 economic shutdown.
However, Statistics Canada points out that another 2.5 million Canadians are still employed but working less than half of their normal hours.
That means a total of 5.5 million Canadians have had their work significantly affected by COVID-19. That number represents more than a quarter of the entire pre-pandemic workforce.
“The magnitude of the decline in employment since February far exceeds declines observed in previous labour market downturns,” Statistics Canada says.
StatsCan points to the 1981-82 recession, where about 5.4 percent of the country’s jobs were lost over a 17-month period.
This year, just since February, 15.7 percent of jobs in the country have disappeared.
“These numbers tell us what we already knew, that right now Canadians are hurting because of this pandemic. Everyone has their own story, but it all boils down to a very difficult time for a lot of people,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday in a press briefing.
Trudeau said that as the economy begins to reopen this month more Canadians will be going back to work. To help “kickstart [the country’s] economic recovery” he announced the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy will be extended beyond June.
He said more details will be made available soon.