Jobless rate spikes as manufacturing hit hard

           Due to the recession over the past year, Canadian employment has dropped by 43 200 jobs. Canada released this statement on Friday, which also states that all of the jobs dropped were part-time. The decreased amount of jobs has resulted in a change in Canada's employment rate from 0.2 percent to 8.6 percent. Many people predict that this rate will be increased to 10 percent by 2010. The United States unemployment rate is the highest since April 1983, as it has already reached the double digits at 10.2 percent. The disappointing decline in Canada was due to the job losses from women aged 25 and older, and youths between 15 and 24. The decline came from retail, wholesale, natural resources, and other services. Alberta was the province with the highest amount of job losses, with 15000 lost, while British Columbia was second with a decline of 13000. Erin Weir, an economist with the United Steelworks, described that "Other pockets of employment growth were construction, education and healthcare, which supports the notion that government stimulus is currently the only job creator," Rising unemployment is not uncommon, but the data from October changes the positive signs of the previous two months, which showed a trend of small growth. Overall, there were 70 700 fewer employees in October- 25 600 less in the public sector, and 45 200 less in the private sector. Although this seems to be only bad news, there were two positive things that we found out in the data. There was a net increase of 16 500 jobs including self-employment, and hourly wages were 3.3 percent higher than at this same time last year.

          I find it baffling how there are so many people unemployed in Canada right now. How do they live? I can't believe that so many people are currently losing their jobs due to this recession. I knew that the recession was affecting some businesses, but I didn't realize the amount of people who have lost their jobs. As a country, we need to stimulate the economy and create more jobs to bring it back to what it was before. I hope that we can accomplish this goal, because it pains me to see so many good workers without jobs just because companies and businesses are trying to cut costs to survive the recession. The mother of one of my friends lost her job this year, and it was devastating for her. Not only did it affect her confidence and self-esteem, but it also affected the lifestyle that she lived. Suddenly she had lots of free time, and became angry when she couldn't find a job to suit her. There is more to behind the scenes than everybody realizes, as this current recession has affected many people including their personal lives as well. We are in a bad economic situation, and I hope that we can pull out of it and restore the amount of jobs and employment opportunities for the people who are desperately trying to earn money.