Canada lost a record 1,011,000 jobs in March and the jobless rate spiked to 7.8 per cent, the largest one-month increase since comparable data became available in 1976.
The unemployment rate stood at 5.6 per cent in February.
But since those heady days, unemployment has skyrocketed as governments ordered all but essential businesses to close and their workers to stay home in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.
The government says it received 966,000 applications for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit on Monday alone – the first day a new web portal for applications was open.
That was on top of what the government says were almost 3.7 million Canadians who became eligible for employment insurance since March 15 and whose claims are now being automatically transferred to the CERB.
(Financial Post/CityNews)
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