Some 6,100 people working in Canada's foresty industry lost their jobs in April, May and June. New data from Statistics Canada shows the jobs lost in this year's second quarter were “the steepest decline ever recorded. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward)

Jobs in Canada’s natural resources industry suffer ‘deepest decline ever’

There’s more bad news for Canadians–and their politicians–as they try to find their way through the COVID-19 pandemic employment crisis: Canada’s natural resources industry–long battered by falling world oil prices–continued to spiral downward in this year’s second quarter, costing close to 43,000 more people their jobs in April, May and June.

Statistics Canada called the 7.3 per cent drop in employment “the steepest decline ever recorded” across that industry.

The agency said the job losses reflected, “a substantial drop in demand for natural resources owing to the slump in economic activity in Canada and in its major trading partners with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

StatsCan data shows natural resources represented about 8.4 per cent of the country’s nominal GDP in the second quarter, down 9.5 per cent from the first quarter. 

Pumpjacks draw oil out of the ground near Olds, Alta. on July 16.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

The energy sector, which suffered a 10.1 per cent drop in real GDP,  saw 23,600 people thrown out of work.

Mark Scholz, president of the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors, told CBC News, some of the association’s members have gone under as a result.

“But most of what is happening is if they can have parked their equipment, have essentially reduced their operating costs to nothing, have reduced their presence almost near nothing, and are just trying to kind of bear down, so to speak, and hopefully wait for the next signals of recovery.”

The over 23,000 job losses in the energy sector were followed by 11,850 jobs lost in the mining and minerals sector, 6,100 jobs lost in the forestry sector and 1,400 jobs jobs lost in hunting, fishing and water industries. 

Altogether, the agency said, there were 42,950 people fell out of work in those natural resources businesses in April, May and June.

With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press

Categories: Society
Tags: , , , ,

Do you want to report an error or a typo? Click here!

For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.