Canada’s economy continues to come back from the depths it hit last spring when the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic first began to make its presence felt.
Statistics Canada’s released its latest Labor Force Survey today, and for the second straight month job growth exceeded expectations.
The agency said the economy added 303,000 jobs in March–lowering the unemployment rate to 7.5 per cent–a long way from last May when it peaked at 13.7 per cent.
The new figures showed a bump in retail jobs, including in the accommodation and food services sector. (Reuters/Chris Wattie)
The March increase puts employment 296,000 shy of the pre-COVID level in February 2020, when the jobless level was 5.6 per cent.
(The rate increased to 7.8 per cent last March and 13 per cent last April before spiking in May.)
Economists had expected March to show another round of gains, but smaller than February.
The 303,000 new jobs put employment 296,000 jobs shy of the pre-COVID level in February 2020. (Bloomberg/Patrick Kelley)
Statistics Canada said the March gains came in sectors hardest hit by public health restrictions.
There were about 95,000 more retail jobs, fully recouping losses sustained in January lockdowns, and an employment bump of 21,000 in the accommodation and food services sector.
The jobs numbers come just over a week before the federal Liberals release their 2021-2022 budget, on April 19.
They also come as a new survey that suggested that over half of Canadians were on verge of insolvency.
The full Labour Force Survey can be read HERE.
With files from The Canadian Press,
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