Hamilton area loses a staggering 18,000 jobs in a month

The Hamilton metropolitan area lost a staggering 18,000 jobs between March and April, according to the latest labour force survey released Friday by Statistics Canada.

It represents one of the largest ever one-month drops in jobs in the greater Hamilton area, as the COVID-19 pandemic brought the Canadian economy to a virtual halt.

The Hamilton census metropolitan area (CMA) includes Burlington and Grimsby.

The Hamilton CMA's unemployment rate shot up to 7.6 per cent in April from 5.9 per cent in March and 4.3 per cent in January.

It's the highest unemployment rate in the Hamilton area since the 2009 recession.

Since January, the Hamilton CMA has lost 30,000 jobs.

The labour force figures for April are estimates based on surveys of the Canadian population and so the reported numbers are subject to sampling variability.

The surveys were conducted during the week of April 12 to 18, when distancing measures and business restrictions were at their height across the country.

The small bit of good news is that the Hamilton area's unemployment rate remains lower than the provincial rate of 8.2 per cent, and below most neighbouring municipalities.

The April unemployment rate was 10.7 per cent in Niagara, 9.6 per cent in Brantford, 8.8 per cent in London and eight per cent in Toronto.

Across the country, job losses in April were catastrophic. Another two million jobs were lost in April, double the one million jobs lost in March.

Canada's unemployment rate in April exploded to 13 per cent, up 5.2 percentage points from March.

It's the highest unemployment rate the country has seen since the 13.1 per cent rate in Dec. 1982.

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