Labour Force Survey on Employment
January 2009
Employment fell by 129,000 in January (-0.8%), almost all in full time, pushing the unemployment rate up 0.6 percentage points to 7.2%. This drop in employment exceeds any monthly decline during the previous economic downturns of the 1980s and 1990s.
Chart 1
The loss in January follows other declines in recent months. Since October, employment has fallen by 213,000 (-1.2%), the result of full-time losses.
In January, the drop in employment was most pronounced in manufacturing, where the net loss totalled 101,000. There were declines in a number of other industries as well. The only industry with notable gains was health care and social assistance, where employment increased by 31,000.
Canada's three largest provinces accounted for the entire employment decrease in January. While just over half of employment losses were in Ontario (-71,000), there were also large declines in both British Columbia (-35,000) and Quebec (-26,000). Employment was little changed in all other provinces.
Employment fell mostly among core-age adults, 25 to 54 years, as well as among youths aged 15 to 24.
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