The Canadian economy added more than 300,000 jobs in March, beating forecasts once again and keeping the labor market on track to recoup all of the jobs lost a year earlier, well before the federal budget, which promises billions in stimulus spending, is released. In total, Statistics Canada reported that the economy gained 303,000 jobs in March as controls were lifted, allowing more employees to return to high-touch industries that had been struck hardest by public health restrictions. Retail employment increased by 95,000 workers, entirely recouping gains from the January lockdowns, while employment in the lodging and food services industry increased by 21,000 jobs.
Unemployment rate falls in Canada
Health care, building, and school programs also saw significant improvements. The last benefit was aided by Ontario, which led the nation in job growth, pushing its March break for schools to the following week in an effort to delay the spread of COVID-19. Overall employment is now 296,000 jobs lower than it was pre-COVID in February 2020, a deficit of 1.5 percent. The unemployment rate was 7.5 percent in March, down from 8.2 percent in February, bringing it to a post-pandemic low.
If Canadians who wished to work but didn’t look for work were counted in the calculations, the unemployment rate would have been 9.7% in March, according to Statistics Canada. With March’s gains, there are almost as many industries with jobs above February 2020 levels as there are currently below, according to BMO chief economist Douglas Porter, who also noted that overall employment outside of hotels and restaurants is at an all-time high.
However, as prohibitions tighten, as they have during the pandemic, the momentum will fade in April, according to Brendon Bernard, an economist with job-posting platform Indeed. It all boils down to vaccination and resolving the situation. That’s what it’ll take for this healing to stay on track and not veer off course. Closing the remaining gap by the end of the year, as the parliamentary budget officer said, won’t be as easy as the 1.5-percentage-point gap indicates, according to Mikal Skuterud, a labor economist at the University of Waterloo.
Staff in the hardest-hit industries make up the distance, which would take the longest to close. For example, the food services sector is now 24.4 percent, or 298,000 workers, below pre-pandemic peaks, the largest deficit in any industry.
The difficult health and economic conditions were the main reasons why people became obliged to adapt to the new reality and make their whole lives digitized. If not the majority, then the vast number of businesses were unable to adjust to the new standards of living and created the job shortage in the country. This is why people were in need to find an alternative source of income from the industries they did not have a close touch with. The only safe place appeared to be the internet and electronic devices and people started using them in order to provide themselves with the proper income.
This is why and when the popularity of either social media or the entertainment industry grew massively. People found the source to generate their financial profits from the financial sector and forex and crypto-industry appeared to be ones that could satisfy people’s needs. Thus the demand for Canadian Forex brokers was massively increased. It helped the money circulation from the country and inside the country as well, which appeared to be a win-win situation for everyone.
According to Skuterud, no matter what economic policies are implemented, the labor market is dependent on handling the health problem, which is essentially a race between the vaccine and the epidemic. The Liberals vowed to generate one million jobs in the fall, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday that the April 19 budget would detail plans to do so. In light of the strengthened labor market and economy, the government has to reconsider how much it will invest from a promised $70 billion to $100 billion in stimulus over three years, as well as what it will spend it on, according to Robert Asselin, senior vice-president policy at the Business Council of Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday that he plans to meet with opposition party leaders one-on-one early next week to discuss the budget, which, if not passed, could destabilize the minority government and force a federal election. Trudeau praised the March employment figures but noted that there are too many Canadians who are unemployed or working part-time.
Despite dramatic decreases in February and March, Statistics Canada reported that the number of unemployed people stood at 1.5 million, or 371,000 more than in February 2020. In addition, the number of long-term unemployed, defined as those who have been out of jobs for six months or longer, was 286,000, or nearly 160 percent, higher than pre-pandemic peaks in February 2020. Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Council, believes the government will detail a skills-training program in the budget to assist teachers and those who might be unemployed in the coming years in finding employment.
He said that there would always be a need for us to have a flexible population in this country who can respond to changes in the economy, referring to energy jobs that will be impacted by the Liberals’ pledge to green the economy. The best way to do this is to provide individuals with the ability to continually refresh and develop their skills.