The Canadian economy shed nearly 2 million jobs in April pushing the unemployment rate to 13 percent amid the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Statistics Canada said in the Labor Force Survey report for April 2020 released on Friday
TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th May, 2020) The Canadian economy shed nearly 2 million jobs in April pushing the unemployment rate to 13 percent amid the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Statistics Canada said in the Labor Force Survey report for April 2020 released on Friday.
"Following a drop of over one million in March, employment fell by nearly two million in April, bringing the total employment decline since the beginning of the COVID-19 economic shutdown to over three million," the report said. "The unemployment rate rose 5.2 percentage points in April to 13.0 percent."
An additional 2.5 million people had their working hours reduced since the onset of the COVID-19-induced measures, which cumulatively means that more than one-quarter of those employed in February have had their income streams substantially affected, the Federal statistics agency said.
The economic hardship has led to surge in demand for government assistance, both from households and businesses.
The Canadian government is reporting that 7.6 million Canadians have applied for the Canada Emergency Response benefit - a taxable $1,400 benefit for workers who have had their income streams affected by the pandemic - with more than $20 billion Dollars' worth of income already being distributed.
Furthermore, more than 110,000 businesses have applied the government's wage subsidy program, according to Treasury board President Jean-Yves Duclos, although, authorities are hopeful that the program will motivate businesses to rehire some of their released workers.
The statistics agency noted that the 15.7 percent decline in employment since February is unprecedented and that the unemployment rate is one percentage point below the historically high rate observed during the 1981-1982 recession.
The report on Friday comes after the report from Canada's Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer that projected that the country faces the largest real GDP decline in recorded history of 12 percent in 2020.
A report by a think tank earlier this month stated that the Canadian economy has already entered a recession as of the first quarter of 2020.
