Numbers show labour force reeling from COVID-19 across Canada

Two new labour market reports show how the COVID-19 pandemic has left the workforce reeling across Canada.

But despite the dire numbers, employment service providers in Hamilton say there are still jobs to be found in the city.

Ontario lost nearly 110,000 jobs in the accommodation and food service industry through March, which represents a 25 per cent reduction in employment for the sector.

Another 77,000 jobs were lost in the retail sector in Ontario and 60,000 jobs were lost in the health care and social assistance sector.

Nationally, a Statistics Canada business survey conducted in April found a third of the country's businesses reported their revenues had dropped by at least 40 per cent from the same period a year earlier.

Nearly three-quarters of businesses in the accommodation and food service industry and 60 per cent of retail businesses reported revenue declines of at least 20 per cent.

The national unemployment rate is expected to hover around 15 per cent until the fall.

A StatsCan labour force survey for March reported 3.4 million people across the country were either not working or working reduced hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nearly 20 per cent of all Canadian businesses laid off at least 80 per cent of their employees, according to the April business survey.

None of the data are specific to Hamilton, but Judy Travis, executive director of Workforce Planning Hamilton, said the city's labour force numbers generally fall in line with the rest of Ontario.

We're still waiting to see what the full impact will be," said Travis. We're just kind of frozen in time right now and waiting for something more to happen."

Travis said she's concerned that low-skilled low-paying jobs are being impacted the most and those are the types of jobs Hamilton had in abundance.

Sometimes they don't do so well in the recovery," Travis said. They tend not to have competitive skills for the labour market and they're less easily transitioned into other types of employment."

But there are still employers hiring in Hamilton, said Lily Lumsden, senior regional manager of community, employment and immigrant services for the YMCA of Hamilton, Burlington and Brantford.

She said there are jobs available in long-term care facilities, grocery stores, delivery services, information technology, distribution centres and call centres.

There are jobs out there but what we're finding is the fear of the unknown," Lumsden said. From the job seeker's perspective, they want to know how is the company going to keep me safe."

The current lack of child care options because of distancing restrictions is also a barrier.

That's going to impact people's ability to go back out and work," said Lumsden. The child care piece will be the key component in terms of getting the economy back where it was."

Employment Hamilton conducted an informal survey of its clients and found slightly more than half of them were prepared to sit tight and wait for the time being.

We certainly know that in the (pre-pandemic) economy, really anyone who wanted to work was working," said Angela Eckart, executive director of Employment Hamilton.

There were lots of jobs available," she said. Certainly we know we're going to see a big change in that."

Eckart expects to see a couple of consequences once the economy starts to regain its footing, however unsteadily that might be.

One, employers are going to find they can operate with less staff," she said, and two, employers are going to wait to see what happens as their business gets back to some sort of normal."

Steve Buist is a Hamilton-based investigative reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sbuist@thespec.com