Statistics Canada reports that another 83,000 jobs were lost in February pushing the unemployment rate to 7.7 per cent and increasing the number of Canadians who want to work but cannot find a job to over 1.4 million. Since October, 295,000 jobs have been lost, most of them full-time. However the latest data available also shows that the EI program was only able to help 45% of unemployed workers in December.
Georgetti says Employment Insurance is an important form of economic stimulus. "It helps people deal with tough times like these. It ensures that while the mill or the factory is shut down, money is in peoples' pockets so the grocery store, shops and other services in the community aren't driven out of business too."
Quick Analysis from Senior Economist, Sylvain Schetagne
- The unemployment rate is up, now at 7.7% (it was 7.2% in January)
- The unemployment rate is back to where it was in July 2003, more than 5 years ago
- The number of Canadians who lost their last month: 83,000
- The number of full-time jobs lost last month: 110,000
- The number of full-time jobs lost so far this year: 225,000. Since October: 307,000.
- Canadian workers who have lost their jobs since October 2008: 295,000
- Canada now has over 1.4 million unemployed men and women. This represents an increase of 23% since last October.
- The construction sector was hardest hit in February, as were men aged 25 to 54. Young workers also took a hit last month, pushing their unemployment rate to 14.2%, the highest since 2001.
