Economics

Canada’s Labor Market Is Showing Early Signs of Healing

  • 30% who lost jobs or hours head back to work, Nanos poll finds
  • Economists see losses decelerating to about 500,000 in May
Photographer: David Kawai/Bloomberg
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Canada’s labor market is starting to recover as lockdowns begin to lift in an economy awash in money from government support programs.

A Bloomberg News poll taken at the end of May found that 30% of respondents who had lost their job or seen hours decline because of the coronavirus pandemic said they were re-employed or working more. The survey, conducted by Nanos Research, is consistent with other high-frequency data from Indeed Canada and Google that suggest a stabilization in labor conditions and economic activity over the past few weeks.