The economy of Canada today has about 200,000 more employment than it had before to the outbreak. Last month, Canada’s economy generated 154,000 new jobs, exceeding estimates and lowering the unemployment rate to just 6%.
The unemployment rate declined by 0.7 percentage points to 6%, according to Statistics Canada. This is the lowest unemployment rate since the outbreak began. Prior to COVID-19, Canada’s unemployment rate was 5.7 percent in February 2020. It peaked at 13.7 percent in May of that year, before progressively declining.
According to Statistics Canada, more than 19.3 million individuals in Canada held a job last month. That’s 183,000 more people than there were before the outbreak. Because of the increase in jobs, the overall number of hours worked has finally returned to where it was before the epidemic.
Hours worked and pay have both increased.
There was also encouraging news on the salary front, with the data agency estimating that earnings were 7.7% higher this month than they were two years earlier.
In November, the average hourly pay was $30.40. This is up to $2.18 from the same time two years ago.
While greater salaries are beneficial to employees, they come with the drawback that the cost of living is rapidly rising as well. Those greater paychecks are offset by the reality that, according to Statistics Canada, prices have risen by 5.3 percent since two years ago. People are returning to work in droves, according to Tanya Gullison, chief revenue officer of employment agency LHH, because they need the money to pay for the rising cost of things.
“Workers are returning to the labor field in pursuit of greater pay due to inflationary pressure,” she added. “Employees, like those south of the border, are navigating this with salary increases.”
Changing employment pays benefits in the long run as well. According to Statistics Canada, average compensation increases for new recruits are quicker than for current employees.
“Bonuses and other incentives are also expected to trickle over in the coming fiscal year as a method of attracting new talent and maintaining existing workers,” Gullison added.