Widow looking for answers after Quebec man dies in Texas Ironman competition
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Statistics Canada says the economy lost 68,000 jobs in May as lockdowns to slow the spread of COVID-19 continued.
The losses marked the second consecutive month of declines after 207,000 jobs were lost in April.
The unemployment rate was 8.2 per cent in May, little changed from the 8.1 per cent in April because the number of unemployed people in Canada overall stayed relatively steady.
What changed is that more people dropped out of the labour force in May, including workers who simply got discouraged and gave up looking for work.
The statistics office says there were 49,700 discouraged job-searchers last month, or 9.3 per cent, those who wanted work but did not look for work, more than twice the average of 22,000 seen in 2019.
Friday's data release also notes that 28,000 more core-aged women, those between age 25 and 54, didn't look for work in May as third wave restrictions continued in Ontario and other regions of the country.
Statistics Canada says the unemployment rate would have been 10.7 per cent in May had it included in calculations those people who wanted to work but didn't search for a job.
May's job losses put the country about 571,100 jobs, or three per cent, below pre-pandemic levels seen in February 2020.
But the actual gap may be larger once adjusting for population growth during the pandemic, which would put the labour market about 763,000 jobs, or 3.9 per cent below the February 2020 levels.
Statistics Canada says employment in goods-producing sectors dropped for the first time since April 2020, including in manufacturing that saw a decline of 36,000 jobs in May.
Despite the losses, economists expect things will improve over the coming months as provinces are set to loosen restrictions and reopen economic activity like after the second wave of the pandemic, says TD senior economist Sri Thanabalasingam.
"Except this time the acceleration in the vaccine rollout may provide employers with added confidence, thereby boosting hiring intentions," he writes in a note.
But he adds that fewer people in the job market could mean the country faces labour shortages just as demand for workers is set to recover.
Here's a quick look at Canada's May employment (numbers from the previous month in brackets):
Here are the jobless rates last month by province (numbers from the previous month in brackets):
Statistics Canada also released seasonally adjusted, three-month moving average unemployment rates for major cities. It cautions, however, that the figures may fluctuate widely because they are based on small statistical samples. Here are the jobless rates last month by city (numbers from the previous month in brackets):
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 4, 2021
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
People living near a wildfire burning about 15 kilometres southwest of Peace River are being told to evacuate their homes.
The world is seeing a near breakdown of international law amid flagrant rule-breaking in Gaza and Ukraine, multiplying armed conflicts, the rise of authoritarianism and huge rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar, Amnesty International warned Wednesday as it published its annual report.
Police are investigating after a transport truck collided with a train in Sarnia.
As some family doctors are retiring and others are moving away from family medicine, there are fewer medical students to take their place.
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.