While Canada has seen an increase in the number of people joining the labor force, there are not enough job openings to accommodate them. As per Statistics Canada’s March 2024 Labour Force Survey, which was released recently, employment level in the country is being haunted by some disturbing factors as unemployment rate rose to 6.1% resulting in a loss of 2,200 jobs, while over 60,000 individuals joined the labour market.
The recent economic evaluation has raised questions concerning whether or not Canada can sustain its employment growth since it faces rapid population growth. The report indicates that employment remained almost unchanged in March with a decrease of 2,200 jobs representing a decline of 0.1 percentage points in the employment rate to reach its current level at 61.4%.
The Conservative party has laid the blame for the economy on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saying his inflationary spending and taxes have turned a struggling economy into shambles where businesses can’t survive and Canadians can’t find work. They point to America, which had strong job creation in April with an unemployment rate of just 3.8%, as proof we’re doing something wrong up here.
On the other hand however, between March 2023 and March 2024 the unemployment rate increased by one percent across Canada. Over this same period, there were one million more working age people (15 years plus) capable of working.
Nevertheless only three hundred twenty four thousand positions appeared; two hundred thirty three thousand were full-time ones however among them five hundred seventy one thousand persons began searching for work actively known as labour force thus significantly contributing into rise in unemployment figure which led to an increase by two hundred forty seven thousand person.
According to Statistics Canada data if Canada is going through steady population growth these days then about fifty thousand new jobs need appear every month so as not let any change occur in employment rates situation any longer than now occurs on a monthly basis.
If the number of new jobs falls below this threshold, unemployment will continue to increase. However, Canadian economy saw an increase of 41,000 positions in February and only slightly less-37,000-in January; but then the March showed a decline of 2 200 in Canadian jobs which led to unemployment rate rising by 0.3%.
Shocking results emerged when a query was posted on our YouTube channel’s community section, asking Canadians for their thoughts on who should be blamed for Canada’s low employment rate, Justin Trudeau or the immigrants. Over 97% of respondents blamed Justin Trudeau.
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Among those most affected in terms of employment loss during March were youth aged between 15 and 24 who lost twenty eight thousand jobs on the other hand there was growth of employment for core-aged men (25 to 54 years) by twenty thousand; whereas for women in core-age group and young women as well as young men over fifty five nothing significant had changed.
Between February and March, different responses were seen across various industries including: Accommodation and food services losing twenty seven thousand employees; wholesale trade plus retail trade -twenty three thousand jobs; Professionals scientific or technical services – another sector which simply got rid of twenty thousand job vacancies. However, some industries experienced improvement such as health care and social assistance respectively that grew its workforce by forty thousand people mostly.
Public sector created two hundred two thousand more than private one’s one hundred forty one thousands. This was however counteracted by a decrease in self-employment by 29,000 (1.1%) between February and March 2024.
Ontario added around twenty six thousand jobs while Quebec lost eighteen thousand employees; Saskatchewan reduced its personnel needs up to six thousand people with over four point three eliminated positions in Manitoba
It is however worth noting that the hourly wages have increased positively despite the difficulty in finding jobs. Consequently, there was an increase of 5.1% in average hourly earnings from March 2023 to March 2024, thus being $34.81 for every hour worked by employees. This follows a February upswing of 5%.
Last Updated on by Alshaar Ansari