Economists hadn’t expected summer setback
At a point when forecasters were expecting a modest increase in employment, the Canadian economy instead shed a startling 139,000 full-time jobs, spiking unemployment up over eight per cent, the first time the jobless rate has risen in nearly a year. The new Statistics Canada numbers this morning seemed like a corrective, after the Canadian economy had generated new jobs more rapidly in recent months than seemed justified by the modest growth in gross domestic product. A hefty drop of 65,000 jobs in the education sector was one feature of the unsettling July employment picture. Despite the summer slump, though, almost all of the jobs shed during the 2008-2009 downturn have been gained back, so the overall situation in 2010 for Canadians seeking employment hasn’t been bleak. The goods-producing sector continued to grow in July, adding 42,000 workers—an upbeat bit of news for the manufacturing sector that was hit hard in the 2009 recession.