Contrary to expectations, a new Statistics Canada report shows that the Canadian economy lost 84,000 jobs in February, bringing the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent after 12 straight months of ‘almost no job growth.’ This represents one of the worst monthly job losses outside of the pandemic.
The decline was dominated by a loss of full-time and private sector jobs, many of which were in goods and services-producing industries. Wholesale and retail trade was down 18,000, construction lost 12,000 jobs, and manufacturing was also down 9,000 jobs, with men aged 25 to 54 and young people between the ages of 15 and 24 the hardest hit, particularly racialized youth.
