Canada’s Employment Starts Recovery From June

Canada added up to around 231,000 jobs in the last month. But these employment opportunities do not yet quite recover the losses endure due to the pandemic in the previous two months.

Canada started seeing some economic recovery in the month of June, but this recovery does not match the losses endured from the third COVID-19 wave.

According to the Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey, employment rose to 231,000  in the last month. This data is a reflection of Canada’s labour market conditions from June 13 to 19.

In the prior two months, Canada suffered a job loss of 275,000. During the time period between November and January, employment in Canada was on a slow upward trajectory. But with the third wave hitting Canada, employment saw a downfall once again in April and May.

As the restrictions started to lift in Canada, Many retail, restaurant, personal care services, and other recreational activities have resumed in around eight Canadian provinces.

Taking the reference of Ontario, the government lifted the stay-at-home order on the day of  2nd June. Outdoor dining and other essential shopping facilities were allowed while indoor dining and gyms including personal care services remained prohibited during the reference week.

Even with the restrictions in place, Ontario was one of the provinces in Canada that see employment growth in the month of June. Other provinces that saw growth in the employment sectors were Quebec, Nova Scotia, and B.C.

Employment of Immigrants in June

Immigrants employments saw a rather slower recovery rate after the removal of restrictions. The employment rate was about 57% for immigrants who have been in Canada for more than five years. This rate was actually down to 2% as compared to February 2020. In comparison to the Canadian born workers, the employment rate was around 60%, which was down by just 1% over the same period of time.

However, recent immigrants who have landed in Canada within the last five years, have seen a much higher employment rate. Within the period of three months ending in June, the number of new immigrants was down to 12% and their employment rate was down by 7%. This resulted in the falling of population faster than the employment. The employment rate for this certain group was around 68% in the month of June which is nearly 4% more than the pre-pandemic level.

Economic Recovery Monitoring

In Canada, the employment rate is calculated on the basis of the number of persons employed with the percentage of the population over the age of 15 years. Hence, in order to truly understand the Canadian labour market trends, we have to consider the fact how employment changes in comparison with the population changes.

Between the time period, February 2020 and June 2021, the population in Canada grow around 1% or 334,000 to be more precise. Therefore, in order to cope up with this population growth, the employment rate must have increased by 203,000 within the time frame. But instead of this, the employment rate dropped by 340,000. The employment rate saw a downfall of nearly 2% in the month of June 2021 as compared to February 2020.

Despite all the challenges faced due to the pandemic, Canada is moving on track with the perspective of recovering all the things including the employment sector. Seeing the growth and changes in the past few months, it is safe to assume that all the downfall will soon be reverted back, getting everything back to normal as before.