Unemployment swells despite 84,000 new jobs

Wave of short-term layoffs in the spring rippled into the fall

OTTAWA— Nearly one-quarter of Canada’s unemployed have been without work for six months of more, with Statistics Canada reporting a spike in their numbers in October even as the economy eked out another month of overall job growth.

Nearly 450,000 were considered long-term unemployed last month, meaning they had been without a job for 27 weeks or more, with their ranks swelling by 79,000 in September and then 151,000 more in October.

Long-term unemployed now make up 24.8 per cent of Canada’s unemployed, who numbered 1.8 million in October, as the wave of short-term layoffs in March and April rippled into the fall.

The jumps in September and October are the sharpest over more than 40 years of comparable data, and have pushed long-term unemployment beyond what it was just over a decade ago during the global financial crisis.

More men than women have been out of work for an extended period, and younger workers make up a larger share of the ranks of the country’s longterm unemployed than they did in the last recession.

The longer those people are out of work, the more difficult it will be for them to find a new job. And for those that do, research has shown a drop in their earnings as they settle for less than they had before.

Some older workers may simply decide to retire. Younger low-wage workers in hard-hit service sectors will have to find new work as part of a reshuffling of the workforce that could take years to play out.

“As the pandemic lingers, and vulnerable sectors like food services continue to struggle, it’s really going to be tough to get back to normal,” said Brendon Bernard, an economist with job-posting site Indeed.

The pace of job growth slowed in October as the economy added 83,600 jobs in the month compared with 378,000 in September, Statistics Canada said Friday. The gains marked the sixth straight month of gains after three million jobs lost over March and April when the pandemic first hit Canada hard.