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This month’s significant number: 14% - DFSIN - SFL

This month’s significant number: 14%

That was Canada’s unemployment rate at the height of the pandemic. It has been dropping steadily ever since.

November 23, 2021

The unemployment rate jumped to almost 14% – more precisely, 13.7% – in July 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic on employment, and on the economy in general. Since then it has been dropping month by month, and just a year later, in August 2021, stood at 7.1%, about half of its peak rate.

At that point, unemployment was lowest in Quebec (5.8%) and Manitoba (5.7%). Not surprisingly, the recovery on the job front seems strongest in the sectors most directly affected by the crisis, i.e. the service industries, especially accommodation and food services.

To put things in perspective, remember that the unemployment rate among Canadians aged 25 and over was 4.8% in 2019.