Canada News
Statistics Canada reports nearly 2 million Canadians lost their jobs in April
The agency said the April unemployment rate is the second-highest, next to the 13.1 percent recorded in December 1982.
(File photo: @timmossholder/Unsplash)
As a result of many businesses being closed down temporarily to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), almost two million Canadians went jobless during the month of April.
Statistics Canada reported on Friday, May 8, that the latest figure adds to over one million Canadians who lost their jobs in March. This brings the total job losses in the midst of pandemic to over three million.
From 7.8 percent in March, Canada’s unemployment rate jumped to 13 percent last month. The agency said the April unemployment rate is the second-highest, next to the 13.1 percent recorded in December 1982.
Statistics Canada noted that the unemployment rate would be even higher, at 17.8 percent, if they included the 1.1 million Canadians who stopped looking for work, probably because opportunities to get a job is very limited since many establishments were being shuttered temporarily.
Reacting to the April job report he received, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during his Friday news conference, “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,” he continued.
Trudeau announced that the government of Canada will be extending the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy beyond June in a bid to help employers keep their staff members on the job or hire back their employees whom they already laid off.
Further details on the extension of the wage subsidy will be revealed next week, but Trudeau said this is intended to “help kick-start our economic re-opening and boost jobs.”
“Canadians want to work. So we’re going to help them get back to work,” he said.
Under the -billion wage subsidy program, the companies affected by the COVID-19 crisis will be given a subsidy of 75 percent of an employee’s pay, which is up to 7, for 12 weeks.
The program is expected to end on June 6.
