More Than 70,000 Canadians Left Jobless In NovemberFriday December 5, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff
Most Canadians probably didn't need statistics to tell them the economy is bad and people are out of work.
Still, the country's jobless numbers released Friday morning were surprising, revealing huge losses across the board.
Last month, about 70,600 employees found themselves without a job - the most since the major recession in 1982.
Ian Thouard is just one of the thousands.
"I was shocked," he recalls of the day he was laid off from his job in food distribution. "I was pretty much taken aback by it."
Now he, like so many others, spends every day searching for openings that barely ever appear.
"It's a frustrating experience because I get to see just how limited the job market is," he adds.
Economists had predicted 20,000 lost jobs, with only the most pessimistic doubling that number. But Ontario alone chalked up 66,000 - made worse by the 42,000 workers laid off in its manufacturing sector.
"Ontario's the manufacturing hub of Canada and we export a lot of those manufactured goods to the U.S.," explains BMO economist Benjamin Reitzes.
But even as the U.S. suffers through an arguably worse economic shift, this country's unemployment rate climbed to 6.3 per cent in November, up from 6.2 per cent the month before. Ontario's jumped to 7.1 from 6.5 per cent.
There was some good news: the health care, social assistance and professional and technical services categories all saw job increases last month.
But the latest jobless numbers will likely mean a reduction when the Bank of Canada sets its interest rate next week.
For the latest numbers on Canadians receiving Employment Insurance,
click here.
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Summary of the StatsCan numbers (previous month in brackets):- Unemployment rate: 6.3 per cent (6.2)
- Number unemployed: 1,162,000 (1,139,700)
- Number working: 17,145,200 (17,215,800)
- Youth (15-24 years) unemployment: 12.3 per cent (12.0)
- Men (25 plus) unemployment: 5.6 per cent (5.5)
- Women (25 plus) unemployment: 4.7 per cent (4.7)
Provincial unemployment rates (previous month in brackets):- Newfoundland 13.7 per cent (13.7)
- Prince Edward Island 10.7 (11.5)
- Nova Scotia 7.8 (7.5)
- New Brunswick 8.7 (8.8 )
- Quebec 7.1 (7.2)
- Ontario 7.1 (6.5)
- Manitoba 4.2 (4.3)
- Saskatchewan 3.7 (4.0)
- Alberta 3.4 (3.7)
- British Columbia 4.9 (5.1)
