Canada adds 246,000 jobs in August to facilitate economic recovery

With the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic, the entire world went into shutdown.

People lost 3 million jobs when the lockdowns were enforced across Canada in March. While the lockdowns were necessary to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the economy definitely took a hit. However, people are slowly going back to work now because the country has brought the situation under control for now. More and more Canadians are resuming their work as a result of which the process of economic recovery has already started.

Current Situation

The August Labour Force Survey results showed that the recent relaxation of public health restrictions has opened the door for people to begin working. The employment situation for Canadians and Canadian immigrants, in particular, will now see improvement since more workplaces have opened up. Employment increased by 1.4% for Canadians in August, and employment for landed immigrants increased by 1.6%.

The employment for recent immigrants went up by 2.2%, which can be attributed to the decrease in the population of recent immigrants. The pandemic has lessened the newcomer arrivals since travel restrictions are still in place all over the world.

Most of the employment gains were in terms of full-time positions. Employment growth can mainly be spotted in the services sector as compared to the goods production sector. The growth in the services sector growth can be attributed to education, accommodation and food services, and other service industries. Unemployment rates are still significantly higher for visible minorities in comparison to people who are not members of a visible minority group.

There is a lot of room for improvement, and it will be a while before Canada can recover the 1.1 million jobs that have been lost since the beginning of the pandemic.