WINNIPEG -- Manitoba’s unemployment rate nearly doubled between March and April, according to the monthly report from Statistics Canada released Friday morning.
The monthly report gives the first glimpse of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the national economy, as 1,993,800 jobs across Canada were reported lost last month.
In Manitoba, the unemployment rate for April 2020 was 11.4 per cent, up from 6.4 per cent in March 2020.
One year ago, Manitoba’s unemployment rate was 5.1 per cent.
According to Statistics Canada, over 64,000 Manitobans lost their jobs last month, a drop of 10 per cent.
In Manitoba, accommodation and food services, natural resources, and information, culture and recreation, are some of the hardest hit industries.
Friday, Joel Waterman, the General Manager of the Inn at the Forks told CTV news the pandemic has taken a toll on their business.
He said, Sparrow Hotels, the company that owns the Norwood Hotel, Inn at the Forks, Mirror Hotel, and Era Bistro and Catering had to make significant cuts in March.
“That first week when this hit, that week of March 16, we laid off 95 per cent of those people,” said Waterman.
“To have to send these people home and tell them not to come back to work on Monday morning was a really difficult thing to have to do, we’re hopeful to be able to bring them all back over the course of time of course.”
Waterman said they’ve since brought back about six employees, and have had to make changes to their business.
THIS MIGHT BE THE WORST MONTH: ECONOMIST
“My view is that this might be the worst month,” said, Philippe Cyrenne, an economics professor at the University of Winnipeg, in an interview with CTV News.
Cyrenne said the province reopening will have an impact on the unemployment numbers.
“The data suggest that the majority of them, you know 75 to 80 per cent are jobs which are sort of temporary layoffs because the businesses have been forced to close, so it’s not cuz there was a reduction in business,” he said.
As businesses in Manitoba start to reopen, new challenges will present themselves and the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce said it’s working with businesses.
“We’re continuing to work on programs that will continue to provide employers with that ability to keep their employees rather than have to lay them off,” said Chuck Davidson, President of the Manitoba Vhambers of Commerce.
Nationally, Canada’s unemployment rate was 13 per cent in April, the second-highest unemployment rate since December 1982, during the recession in the early 1980s.
In March, the national unemployment rate was 7.8 per cent, with more than one million jobs lost nationwide.
-With files from The Canadian Press
