January 15, 2010
Economic update
60% of jobs lost in Canada last year were in Ontario
Nearly 60 per cent of the jobs lost in Canada in 2009 were in Ontario, Alex Carrick notes in his latest report. “To understand how severe this was, consider that Ontario’s labour force makes up slightly less than 40% of the national total,” he says.
Out of the national job loss figure of 240,000, Ontario’s portion was 142,000.
The year-over-year decline in employment in the province at -2.1% was the most extreme in the country and higher than the national average rate of -1.4%.
The manufacturing sector bore most of the pain, Carrick says
The five worst-performing urban labour markets in the country, in terms of high unemployment rates and weak or negative year-over-year job change, were in Ontario.
