Statistics Canada released its regular monthly Labour Force Survey report today (October 9, 2009) and it contains good news: Employment in Canada increased in September by 31,000 jobs, and unemployment dropped for the first time since the fall of last year. The increase marked the second month in a row in which employment increased in Canada. Unemployment now stands at 8.4% in Canada, at 9.2% in Ontario, and at 7.4% in British Columbia. (more…)

A new StatCan report regarding May’s Employment Numbers indicates that employment in Canada decreased by 42,000 in May and unemployment rose to 8.4% - Canada’s highest rate for 11 years. The job losses were concentrated in Ontario, where unemployment reached 9.4% - its highest value in 15 years. In fact, Ontario lost 60,000 jobs in May, bringing total losses since last October to 234,000 or 3.5%. While Ontario accounts for 39% of the total working-age population, it has experienced 64% of overall employment losses since the start of the labour market downturn. The remaining provinces saw little changes in May, and Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan even experienced increases in employment.
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According to a report released by Statistics Canada recently, 681,400 people were receiving regular Employment Insurance benefits in March 2009, up by 65,300 or 10.6% from the previous month. The strongest percent increases occurred in Alberta and British Columbia, but this to some extent is due to the fact that these provinces had low unemployment rates compared to other parts of the country at the beginning of the recession – so now they seem bound to catch up with the rest of the country. (more…)

In early February, we released the Vicinity Jobs monthly hiring index reports and expressed cautious optimism that Ontario’s job market may have bottomed already (read article). Unfortunately, the February numbers (which we just released) dashed our hopes.

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