Canada loses 55,000 jobs in March, including in manufacturing

Canada lost a whopping 55,000 jobs in March – many in the manufacturing sector – and the unemployment rate rose to 7.2 per cent, a result that was much worse than economists had expected.

As reported by Statistics Canada, there were 85,000 fewer private-sector employees in March, while the number of self-employed rose by 39,000 and the number of public-sector employees was little changed.

Many economists had expected a modest gain in employment for March, even after an unanticipated increase of 51,000 jobs in February, when the national unemployment rate held at 7.0 per cent.

StatsCan said the March unemployment picture includes “notable employment declines” in accommodation and food services, public administration and manufacturing.

Both the manufacturing and public administration sectors lost 24,000 jobs, and are down significantly from a year ago, StatsCan said. Among people aged 25 to 54, employment declined by 47,000, equally divided between men and women.

The full StatsCan report is available at this link.