Over 90,000 jobs were lost nationwide in August
The Canadian economy suffered an unexpected loss of 92,000 part-time jobs in August, offsetting a 40,400 increase in full-time employment and stoking fears of lowered purchasing power across the country’s housing markets.
This represented the second largest month-over-month decline since the great recession last decade, Statistics Canada said late last week.
The losses pushed the national unemployment rate to 6%, up from July’s 5.8% and exceeding expert predictions of 5.9%. Meanwhile, wage gains have ground down to their slowest rate this year.
Ontario took the worst hit in employment numbers last month, losing 80,100 part-time jobs. This was the province’s largest employment drop since 2009.
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A fresh report by Point2 Homes noted that a convergence of various trends – including weaker purchasing power brought about by unemployment – has caused the national home ownership rate to decline for the first time in nearly half a century.
“The burst of China’s speculative bubble sent shock waves through the global economy… with especially large effects on Canada’s resource-based, export-driven economy,” the report explained.
“The collapse of oil prices and the country’s heavy reliance on exports to its Asian partner pushed Canada into a recession. The ensuing economic deceleration affected wages, hence lowering people’s purchasing power. Home prices, however, kept going up, leading to the decline in homeownership rates revealed by the 2016 StatsCan numbers.”
