Canadian economy seems to recover fast amid the coronavirus pandemic. In July, the Canadian government fueled the marketplace by adding 418,500 new jobs dropping the unemployment rate to 10.9 percent. As per the report published by Statistics Canada, though the country has added more jobs in July, it is still less than June. The Canadian economy is still far behind 1.3 million jobs it had in February 2020. To put simply, the job market in Canada has bounced back to about 93 per cent of its previous capacity or before the spread of Covid-19.
At this point, many Canadians and permanent residents have joined their regular work while many have started looking for new jobs. Many lockdown-related restrictions have also been lifted across the country, resulting in the addition of more jobs. Despite adding new jobs, the country is yet not able to fill the complete employment gap, which was created between February and March. Only 55% recovery is done till date, and the country has a long way to go before it can bring the economy back to its previous shape.
Canadian businesses are operating at full speed amid some challenges that will last until the year-end or even more. It will take some time for the government to fully restore Canada’s employment levels as the Covid-19 crisis has taken a heavy toll on economic activity, resulting in higher uncertainty levels and lower confidence among consumers and businesses.
- Canadian provinces are also resuming their economic activities by adding more jobs. Ontario added 151,000 new jobs, followed by Quebec with 98,000. British Columbia also added 70,000 new jobs, while Alberta injected 68,000 new jobs. New Brunswick is still on the road to recovery.
- The increase in job rates shows that Canada continues to move forward in terms of economic recovery, though at a slow pace, things are going into a positive direction for sure.
- Canada had lost over 3 million jobs between February to April due to the pandemic, out of which the country has restored 1.66 million jobs post the Covid-19 period.
- Many provinces in Canada are still experiencing the outbreak, whereas in some provinces, restrictions have been removed, and more relaxations have introduced. As a result, more job additions can be expected in the coming months. For regions still dealing with the pandemic crises, it will take a much longer time for their job rate to return to the previous levels.
- The unemployment rate fell to 10.9 percent in July. The decline in the unemployment rate is positive news as it depicts the labor market recovery and the number of people who gained employment amid the pandemic. Now, in the coming months, it would be interesting to see more Canadians re-entering the job market and resuming economic activities.
- The service industry witnessed the major boom in employment gains. Out of 418,500 jobs created in July, 347,900 belonged to the service sector. Wholesale and retail trade had an increase of 101,300 new jobs, accommodation, and food services (+100,500) and other services (+39,500).
- Average weekly wages also increased during the pandemic. The reason being- the majority of job losses during the pandemic happened in the low wage industry only. The Canadian economy is now slowly recovering, so is its low-wage and part-time job industry.
Canada’s latest statistics are good news of Canada immigration aspirants since they can now expect a more robust labor market once they obtain permanent residency status.