Job Growth Slowing, Time for Business-Led Recovery Says Canadian Chamber

Faced with imminent failure, businesses have been doing what they do best: adapting, innovating and doing their part to keep Canadians employed. Given the opportunity, they will develop business plans, find the capital and take the risk of rebuilding for job creation. But they need government help to clear obstacles to growth. (File photo: engin akyurt/Unsplash)

(OTTAWA) – The Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Chief Economist, Dr. Trevin Stratton, issued the following statement regarding today’s Labour Force Survey numbers.

“Today’s labour force numbers demonstrate that momentum is slowing after a sharp rebound in job growth over the previous months. This new phase of the recovery is characterized by our economy reopening, but operating below capacity. It is clear that we have an extended rebuilding period ahead of us after an initial return to work.

Faced with imminent failure, businesses have been doing what they do best: adapting, innovating and doing their part to keep Canadians employed. Given the opportunity, they will develop business plans, find the capital and take the risk of rebuilding for job creation. But they need government help to clear obstacles to growth.

We can start by building a strategy that gives Canada’s businesses the opportunity to combine the full power of our educated and skilled workforce to drive a historic recovery. But governments need to create a more attractive environment for investment, growth and recovery. They must eliminate the regulatory gridlock that paralyzes some of our most innovative, growth-oriented projects.

Our flagging job growth shows that economic and labour force fundamentals will play a pivotal role in helping the country recover from the devastating impacts of COVID-19. Canadians cannot return to their normal lives or find a new normal until they are gainfully employed. Everyone recovers when business recovers. Any true recovery must, and inevitably will, be business-led.

About the Canadian Chamber of Commerce – Because Business Matters

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce helps build the businesses that support our families, our communities and our country. We do this by influencing government policy, by providing essential business services and by connecting businesses to information they can use, to opportunities for growth and to a network of local chambers, businesses, decision-makers and peers from across the country, in every sector of the economy and at all levels of government, as well as internationally. We are unapologetic in our support for business and the vital role it plays in building and sustaining our great nation.