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“We Need All Hands on Deck in this Labour Market”
Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford appeared on CBC’s News Network, with host Natasha Fatah, to discuss new employment data confirming a rapid slowdown in Canada’s labour market. He argued that a perverse consequence of aggressive interest rate hikes by the Bank of Canada has been a reduction in labour force participation: down 0.7 points since the tightening began in March, equivalent to the loss of 225,000 workers. “We need all hands on deck in this labour market”, he said, to address supply chain problems, the health care crisis, and other challenges. In this context, “throwing cold water over the whole economy” has a perverse, self-defeating impact on the…
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Higher Interest Rates Starting to Bite in Canada’s Labour Market
New labour force data from Statistics Canada confirm that Canada’s economy is already slowing down sharply as a result of aggressive interest rate increases begun by the Bank of Canada in March. With the U.S. economy (Canada’s largest trading partner) already in technical recession (with two consecutive quarters of real GDP contraction), and monthly GDP data showing no growth since May, this new report adds to worries that Canada’s economy is heading into recession as well. The labour force data confirm that the aggressive monetary tightening begun by the Bank of Canada in March is having a negative impact on employment and participation in Canada’s labour market. Employment fell in…