Posted: Sunday, 1 March 2009
This is the first in what we expect to be a series of short analytical reports from the Social and Economic Policy Department of the Canadian Labour Congress, digging into and reporting on Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey and Employment Insurance data.
This report focuses on rising unemployment and shows that―when the rise of “hidden” unemployment is taken into account―we have already hit double digit levels.
Rising unemployment is entirely driven by major job losses which have affected almost every community in Canada. Since October 2008, we have lost more than 300,000 full-time jobs, and most of these are the result of permanent layoffs.
Surprisingly, public sector jobs are being hit proportionally harder in the recent downturn than private sector jobs.
Recession Watch Bulletin #1