Canada’s economy added 953,000 jobs in June as businesses shuttered by COVID-19 lockdowns began to reopen, the country’s national statistics agency reported Friday.
Statistics Canada said the economy added 488,000 full-time and 465,000 part-time positions in June. Economists were expecting the economy to create only about 700,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate fell to 12.3 per cent in June after hitting a record-high of 13.7 per cent in May.
Approximately 2.5 million Canadians were unemployed in June, a decrease of 167,000 (-6.4 per cent) from May but more than double the February level (1.1 million), Statistics Canada reported.
Most of the new jobs came from Ontario and Quebec, which added 378,000 and 248,000 jobs, respectively. But every province added at least a small number of jobs.
Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, said combined with the May rise of 290,000 jobs, the numbers mean that 41 per cent of the roughly 3 million jobs lost during the COVID-19 shutdowns in March and April had been reversed by the middle of June.
“This is a solid second step on the road to recovery, but still leaves employment at just 91 per cent of the February level (up from 84.4 per cent at the April low),” Porter wrote in a research note to clients.
With economies opening up further since this mid-June survey, he expects to see another solid advance next month as well, Porter added.
“But as impressive as these results are, there are still miles to go in this recovery; after this initial, mechanical bounce, the next stages are likely to be much slower going,” Porter said.
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