By Canadian Press

Canada lost 1,011,000 jobs in March, unemployment rate up to 7.8%; StatCan

Apr 9, 2020 | 8:23 AM

OTTAWA – Statistics Canada reports the economy lost 1,011,000 jobs in March, the worst recorded single-month change as the COVID-19 crisis began to take hold, lifting the unemployment rate to 7.8 per cent.

Economists warn the numbers are likely to be even worse when the agency starts collecting April job figures, with millions more Canadians now receiving emergency federal aid.

The 2.2 percentage-point increase is the biggest monthly change in the national unemployment rate over the last 40-plus years of comparable data and brings the rate to a level not seen since October 2010.

Statistics Canada retooled some of its usual measures of counting employed, unemployed and “not in the labour force” to better gauge the effects of COVID-19 on the job market, which has been swift and harsh.

The number of people considered unemployed rose by 413,000 between February and March, almost all of it fuelled by temporary layoffs, meaning workers expected their jobs back in six months.

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The number of people who didn’t work any hours during the week of the labour force survey increased by 1.3 million, the national statistics office says, while the number who worked less than half of their usual hours increased by 800,000.