Canada's April Unemployment

[Hamloc]

So Statscan just released the April unemployment numbers and I have to admit I thought they would be higher. They came in at 13% unemployed. What caught my eye in the Cbc article was that these statistics have been tracked since 1976 and only one other time did Canada have unemployment this high and that was December 1982, no pandemic but one thing in common with today, a Trudeau was Prime Minister. Now I fully appreciate that the high unemployment rate under Justin Trudeau was caused by circumstances beyond his control, what was his Dad's excuse?!?!

There will be some who will defend Justin Trudeau by pointing to the U.S. and in all fairness the U.S. unemployment rate was announced at 14.7% this morning. In Canada job losses weren't the only way the pandemic is affecting employment. On top of those out of work, the number of people still working but who worked less than half their usual hours increased by 2.5 million fron feb. to April. "That means the cumulative effect of the economic shutdown-people both no longer employed or working far less-was a staggering 5.5 million as of the week of April 12."

[jazz]

Just like Trudeaus job creation numbers were fake, so are his job losses. 7M people applied for CERB in April alone and some went on EI. Almost 1M people work in the hotel and restaurant biz in Canada which is a single sector. There are about 15M full time workers in Canada.

So either Trudeau is lying and we have an UE rate closer to 50% or we have a lot of dishonest people in Canada applying for benefits.

[Austrian Economics]

Every country on earth is experiencing this level of unemployment. I think that they all underestimate the actual effect, since people qualifying for wage subsidies are not counted as unemployed even though they are not working. Then there are subsidies for business losses for businesses that are, in reality, closed and selling nothing. Absent the subsidy, the owners would have little or no income.

[Blaithin]

So Statscan just released the April unemployment numbers and I have to admit I thought they would be higher. They came in at 13% unemployed. What caught my eye in the Cbc article was that these statistics have been tracked since 1976 and only one other time did Canada have unemployment this high and that was December 1982, no pandemic but one thing in common with today, a Trudeau was Prime Minister. Now I fully appreciate that the high unemployment rate under Justin Trudeau was caused by circumstances beyond his control, what was his Dad's excuse?!?!

There will be some who will defend Justin Trudeau by pointing to the U.S. and in all fairness the U.S. unemployment rate was announced at 14.7% this morning. In Canada job losses weren't the only way the pandemic is affecting employment. On top of those out of work, the number of people still working but who worked less than half their usual hours increased by 2.5 million fron feb. to April. "That means the cumulative effect of the economic shutdown-people both no longer employed or working far less-was a staggering 5.5 million as of the week of April 12."

Wasn’t 82 because of the Cold War having an effect on the American economy?

[Austrian Economics]

Wasn’t 82 because of the Cold War having an effect on the American economy?

In 1981, interest rates hit their post-war peak. At double-digit interest, almost no business plan could be justified and bankruptcies cascaded across the economy.

[helmsdale]

Every country on earth is experiencing this level of unemployment. I think that they all underestimate the actual effect, since people qualifying for wage subsidies are not counted as unemployed even though they are not working. Then there are subsidies for business losses for businesses that are, in reality, closed and selling nothing. Absent the subsidy, the owners would have little or no income.

A couple more C5 Galaxy's of cash ought to get us out of this...

We're going to run out of ink!

[jazz]

Every country on earth is experiencing this level of unemployment.

So I confirmed this today, yes there are effectively 8M people not working at the current time. Now how you count them is the little deception played by StatsCan. That means our UE is like more than 50% in the FT working crowd.

[shtferbrains]

Here's the best I can get from reading different sources;

19 million Canadian work force all in.
7.1 million applied for the Covid emergency funding for the next 4 months. $2000 per person.
2.1 million college students can get a "grant" of $1200 mo + 350,000 that graduated high school.


Some of Employers like the airlines that got the 75% wage subsidy used it to furlough their employees as it paid $875 a week. Not included as these folks are still employed but also 100% on the dole.

Nothing for the ones on unemployment prior to april1 or any welfare, LTD, Pension,etc.

That obviously equals 13% unemployed and the rest of us 77% still paying taxes can carry that.

Expert on the CBC today said we aren't bad cause USA has 22 million unemployed.

He did say 13% was the highest it's been in some time.

Can't argue because CBC doesn't use just anybody when they want an expert opinion.

Don't want any of that radical Knuckledragger redneck Fake News polluting the national broadcaster.

[Blaithin]

Does the 7.1 million applied mean they aren’t working? Because there is an option for essential workers to apply for CERB and have their wage topped up if they don’t make $2500 a month. Just because they’re receiving money doesn’t mean they’re unemployed.

[shtferbrains]

Does the 7.1 million applied mean they aren’t working? Because there is an option for essential workers to apply for CERB and have their wage topped up if they don’t make $2500 a month. Just because they’re receiving money doesn’t mean they’re unemployed.

Yea!

That's who I want on my payroll.

Somebody who thinks they are doing you a favor by coming to work for the odd day telling the ones that come every day they are getting screwed.

You go for it.