Temporarily Unexpected

Bloomberg;

Canada’s labor market suffered a larger-than-expected setback last month after the nation was hit with fresh lockdowns meant to contain the omicron variant of Covid-19.

The country shed 200,100 jobs in January, Statistics Canada reported Friday from Ottawa, ending a seven-month streak of gains. Economists in a Bloomberg survey were expecting a drop of 110,000. The unemployment rate rose to 6.5 per cent, from 6 per cent at the end of last year.

Meanwhile, down in Hillbilly Covidland…

In Saskatchewan, the gain of 3,900 jobs (+0.7%) include increases in employment in business, building and other support services, and construction. Regina found its employment on par with January 2020, while Saskatoon was up 7.1% compared with that month.

9 Replies to “Temporarily Unexpected”

  1. Time to move to Saskatchewan.

    Comrade Douglas doesn’t want conservatives in Ontario anymore.

  2. Wait a few days before moving to Saskatchewan. -25 C today with 50 Kph winds. Frostbite in minutes.

    Next week will be soon enough, and late February you can plant your chair out in the snow and drink beer mid afternoon.

  3. From the Goldbeck link:

    “Of note, 10% of Canadian employees missed at least some work in January due to illness or disability, shattering the previous record of 8.1%, set in March of 2020.”

    It would be interesting to know how much ‘of note’ that is, why so much illness?

    It does make sense when he later says:

    “Life Sciences

    Goldbeck believes that the time is right for a diversification of investment in life sciences.

    “A lot of investment has been moved toward Covid-related sectors of the bio/life-sciences industry,” he notes. “I think you’ll probably see a gradual transfer of investment and growth across the spectrum of life sciences as Covid becomes more normalized.””

    Yippee…

  4. Is it just me? It seems that the jurisdictions that have less controlling governments always show better numbers in other areas.

  5. Not sure if the math works on that info, 200 000 jobs lost and only a half percent increase, hmmmm. How many workers are there in Canada.

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