JOBLESS RANKS SOARING
Hospitality, food sectors hit hard in Sask. as COVID-19 takes toll
Saskatchewan shed 52,900 jobs from March to April, as COVID -19 restrictions took a deeper bite into the province’s labour market.
Statistics Canada released that seasonally adjusted number on Friday through its Labour Force Survey, which covers the period from April 12 to 18. The plunge is far deeper than what was recorded for March, when 20,900 jobs were shed compared to February.
Added up, that means employment is down roughly 73,800 over two months. The April job losses are, by far, the steepest on record over more than four decades.
The unemployment rate, which reached 11.3 per cent in Saskatchewan last month, is also at the highest level since online data is available back to 1976.
NDP Leader Ryan Meili called the job losses “serious and sobering.” Premier Scott Moe said they are “very troubling,” but he saw a silver lining in the 12.7 per cent decrease in employment from February to April.
“That is a huge number of jobs lost,” he said. “This is very concerning. But it’s actually less than every other province in Canada.”
That’s true. Saskatchewan was best in the nation in percentage terms, in both employment numbers and in hours worked, which were down 15.8 per cent. Canada as a whole has shed more than three million jobs since February, with
Statistics Canada connecting the record-smashing number to the “intentional shutdowns” governments have put in place to contain COVID -19.
On Friday, Moe announced that the province’s $5,000 grant program for businesses affected by government restrictions will be extended. Businesses already approved will automatically get a second payment after May 19. He also revealed tweaks to the province’s Re- Open Saskatchewan plan, including to open up farmers’ markets and drive-in theatres this month.
Meili repeated his call to pause the second stage of that plan on Friday, despite the new economic data. Asked whether his position would extend the pain, he signalled that the premier’s plan is far more dangerous.
“If we do this wrong, we will see more people get sick,” said the Opposition leader. “And we will see businesses that have opened their doors shutting down again. We’ll see those job losses go from temporary to permanent.”
Joel Bruneau, head of the economic department at the University of Saskatchewan, said it’s tough to predict how much worse things will get. The situation is “unprecedented.” We won’t know if Saskatchewan has hit the bottom until next month at the earliest.
“I suspect we’re past the worst, but I’m not sure how quickly we’re going to rebound,” he said.
In April, most of the plunge in Saskatchewan’s employment figures was driven by full-time positions. The province shed 39,900 full-time jobs relative to March, as well as 12,900 part-time positions. That’s the reverse of the March figures, when part-time job losses were more significant.
There is also a stark difference between the scale of job losses in the public and private sectors. Public-sector employment is down just 2,600 year-on-year, while private-sector jobs have plummeted by 64,900 in Saskatchewan.
Youth are more likely to be out of work than other age groups. The unemployment rate for Saskatchewan people aged 15 to 24 is now 23.7 per cent.
The service sector bore the brunt of the damage in Saskatchewan, with employment down 44,100 month-on-month and 53,400 relative to April 2019.
Accommodation and food service was the hardest hit of all. Jim
Bence, president and CEO of the Saskatchewan Hotel and Hospitality Association, said business has “fallen off a cliff ” as the overwhelming majority of hotel rooms sit empty. He’s heard of hotels with about 250 rooms but only nine occupied.
Bence said the new jobs numbers “aren’t surprising at all.” He’s heard of 95 per cent layoffs in some hotels.
He expects a long-term “collapse,” and warned that a wave of bankruptcies is “very much on the horizon.”
“Full-service hotels are in the process of negotiating with their banks, desperately, to get some sort of relief,” he said.
He said the 75 per cent wage subsidy from Ottawa isn’t enough to save most jobs, since “there’s absolutely nothing for them to do.”
“You’re hemorrhaging money. You could avail yourself of that wage subsidy, but to what end? You’re still paying that 25 per cent, and you can’t afford that 25 per cent,” he said.
“You’ve got managers that are out painting lines in parking lots just to keep some sort of work going.”