Canada lost 200,000 employment in January as Omicron pounded tough

Key takeaways:

• The unemployment rate increases to 6.5%; employment losses are almost double what was predicted.
• Many businesses shut up stores in January due to the spread of the Omicron variant, which failed employment for hundreds of thousands of Canadians.

Omicron badly affects jobs of Canadians:

According to Statistics Canada, Canada’s economy lost 200,000 employment the previous month, as COVID-19 closedowns connected to the Omicron variant saw numerous businesses shut up stores.

The data agency said Friday that the downfall drove the unemployment rate up to half a percent, to 6.5 percent. That’s the first addition to Canada’s jobless rate since April 2021.

Most of the employment losses were focused in Ontario and Quebec, two regions that witnessed some of the most challenging and earliest waves of the Omicron-driven tide, and which both forced to lockdown in response. Economists anticipated a sad figure, but the 200,000 lost employment were around twice expected.

As was the case during the last surges, housing and food services took the brunt of the employment losses, with 113,000 jobs lost during the month. Another public-facing enterprise, retail, was also struck hard, losing 26,000 employees. 

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‘No option but to close

Drew Bathory, the co-founder of the ELMNT Studio fitness center in Montreal, is one of the thousands of workers who have attempted diligently to hold the doors open throughout the pandemic.

The business opened only weeks ere COVID-19 first strike in March of 2020, and while they gamely created a go of it through numerous surges, they lately pulled the pin for good.

“We prepared to shut down for vacations and intended to reopen but simply never did,” he informed CBC News in an interview. Source – cbc.ca

The center hired almost 40 individuals at one point and shrank to approximately 20 staff due to different capacity constraints, but Omicron has demonstrated to be too much.

“We have no option,” he stated. “We have tried.” Source – cbc.ca