As the Rob Ford scandal gripped Toronto, unemployment quietly surged
According to Statistics Canada, the city’s jobless rate has climbed steadily from a three-month moving average of 7.8 per cent in the summer, through 8 per cent to 8.2 per cent in November, and, finally, 8.4 per cent last month.
But few have been talking about the unrelenting rise in unemployment to the second-highest level in Canada, held spellbound instead by the months of revelations, the antics at city hall and the endless jokes on late-night television.
Bank of Montreal’s chief economist noted the troubling increase in unemployment in a research note, though he made no reference to how the city has been sidetracked by the Rob Ford saga.
“Perhaps the quirkiest stat in the brutal Canadian employment report for December was the fact that Toronto’s unemployment rate moved above Windsor’s for the first time in a decade,” Douglas Porter said, referring to Friday’s disappointing report from Statistics Canada that showed the country lost 46,000 jobs last month as the national unemployment rate climbed to 7.2 per cent.
Toronto now stands well above the national average, second only to Ontario’s St. Catharines, and is home to almost 290,000 people who can’t find work.
That’s up by almost 11,000 people, an increase of close to 4 per cent, from a year ago.
“(Prior to the loonie’s steep ascent 10 years ago, it actually wasn’t rare at all for Toronto to have a higher jobless rate, but it’s been no contest since),” Mr. Porter said.
“Sadly, this is not really a story about a great comeback in Windsor, although a recover in the auto industry is helping give a small life to employment there,” he added.
“Instead, the bigger story is the relative deterioration in Toronto … A slowdown in home building, provincial budget restraint, manufacturing and ongoing robust population inflows have all played a part in pushing up the local jobless rate versus the rest of the country."
As the Rob Ford scandal gripped Toronto, unemployment quietly surged - The Globe and Mail
According to Statistics Canada, the city’s jobless rate has climbed steadily from a three-month moving average of 7.8 per cent in the summer, through 8 per cent to 8.2 per cent in November, and, finally, 8.4 per cent last month.
But few have been talking about the unrelenting rise in unemployment to the second-highest level in Canada, held spellbound instead by the months of revelations, the antics at city hall and the endless jokes on late-night television.
Bank of Montreal’s chief economist noted the troubling increase in unemployment in a research note, though he made no reference to how the city has been sidetracked by the Rob Ford saga.
“Perhaps the quirkiest stat in the brutal Canadian employment report for December was the fact that Toronto’s unemployment rate moved above Windsor’s for the first time in a decade,” Douglas Porter said, referring to Friday’s disappointing report from Statistics Canada that showed the country lost 46,000 jobs last month as the national unemployment rate climbed to 7.2 per cent.
Toronto now stands well above the national average, second only to Ontario’s St. Catharines, and is home to almost 290,000 people who can’t find work.
That’s up by almost 11,000 people, an increase of close to 4 per cent, from a year ago.
“(Prior to the loonie’s steep ascent 10 years ago, it actually wasn’t rare at all for Toronto to have a higher jobless rate, but it’s been no contest since),” Mr. Porter said.
“Sadly, this is not really a story about a great comeback in Windsor, although a recover in the auto industry is helping give a small life to employment there,” he added.
“Instead, the bigger story is the relative deterioration in Toronto … A slowdown in home building, provincial budget restraint, manufacturing and ongoing robust population inflows have all played a part in pushing up the local jobless rate versus the rest of the country."
As the Rob Ford scandal gripped Toronto, unemployment quietly surged - The Globe and Mail
