Canada unexpectedly added almost 290,000 jobs in May as some provinces loosened COVID-19 restrictions on businesses, recent data showed, and there could be an even bigger improvement in June.
Canada lost some 3 million jobs from February to April, but recovered 289,600 of them in May, Statistics Canada said. The jobless rate hit a record high of 13.7 per cent.
Analysts in a Reuters poll had predicted a loss of 500,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 15 pr cent.
“The lifting of restrictions are starting to be very good for the job market in May, and you can expect that it will continue in June,” said Benoit Durocher, a senior economist at Desjardins in Montreal, who was the only economist among 19 in a Reuters poll who had projected an jobs increase on Friday.
Benoit forecasts that employment will climb 800,000 in June as Ontario, the most populous province, starts to contribute to the upswing. Quebec, the Canadian province with the most COVID-19 cases, drove May’s gain after lifting some restrictions from mid-April.
“I think this probably counts as the largest job gain in Canadian history for one month, but it’s also still just a drop in the bucket in terms of recovering the lost jobs over March and April,” said Nathan Janzen, senior economist at RBC.
(Reuters)
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