In this edition:

Niagara sheds approx. 300 jobs
Ontario to create additional child care spaces, schools
Ontario Chamber of Commerce delivers 2022 Ontario Economic Report
Ontario to offer free training to food and beverage workers

Labour force survey a ‘setback’ for Ontario, Niagara sheds approx. 300 jobs

Remarking on the news that Ontario’s employment numbers had dropped by 145,700 in January 2022, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli remarked that “today’s news of a setback is a reminder that, despite the boom in job creation we’d experienced as a province since September, the fight against COVID-19 is not over.”

Job losses were concentrated in accommodation and food services, information, culture and recreation, and wholesale and resale trade, likely due in large part to the re-imposition of restrictions in January that affected those industries. Ontario manufacturing also took a significant job hit, although the national goods-producing sector added 23,000 jobs.

January employment declines were driven by Ontario and Quebec.

Niagara saw a drop of 300 jobs between December and January (seasonally unadjusted), while the number of jobseekers rose from 16,100 to 17,400. Statistics Canada reports that the seasonally adjusted unemployment numbers remained unchanged from December to January, indicating that seasonality may have been a significant factor locally, although January restrictions likely took a heavy toll on Niagara’s service-heavy economy.

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Ontario to create additional child care spaces, schools

The Ontario government is investing $42.6 million to create more than 1500 additional licensed child care spaces across the province, including 18 infant rooms (180 new spaces), 28 toddler rooms (420 new spaces), 36 preschool rooms (864 new spaces), and seven family age group rooms (105 new spaces).

The funding will create 88 new child care spaces in Grimsby. The Province will also create a new English public elementary school in south Niagara Falls to serve 608 students, including a child care centre with 49 licensed child care spaces, and a new English Catholic elementary school in Lincoln to serve 421 students.

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Ontario Chamber of Commerce delivers 2022 Ontario Economic Report

Ontario to offer free training to food and beverage workers

The Ontario government is investing almost $1 million to prepare over 600 people across the province for rewarding careers in food and beverage processing. This funding to Food and Beverage Ontario provides jobseekers with training, mentorship, and job placements with local employers in baking, food science, and food production and processing.

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Reading Recommendations

Canada loses 200,000 jobs, nearly double the blow economists expected

Financial Post

Canadians worked significantly fewer hours in January, and the jobless rate surged, evidence that the Omicron wave of COVID-19 has slowed economic growth. Statistics Canada’s January Labour Force Survey found that hours worked dropped 2.2 per cent from December, when hours had returned to pre-pandemic levels. A decline in economic activity of that size will interrupt the momentum the economy had built over the latter half of 2021.

The Bank of Canada last week estimated that gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual rate of almost six per cent in the fourth quarter, but acknowledged the fifth wave of coronavirus infections will probably cause growth to slow to two per cent this quarter.

The unemployment rate jumped to 6.5 per cent from six per cent, and employment dropped by 200,000 positions, more than most Bay Street forecasters were expecting. The numbers confirm anecdotal evidence of what happened as provincial governments reintroduced restrictions at restaurants, arenas and other high-touch businesses to limit the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

Young, working Canadians face a dilemma: eat, or pay the bills?

Maclean’s

As the pandemic enters its third year, low-income workers across the country are getting caught in a pincer, with the cost of living escalating rapidly and the labour market thrown into flux. Even as employers report a desperate need for workers, repeated lockdowns, and the increased threat of contracting the virus, have made in-person service work more precarious, forcing workers like Fecioru into long stretches without paycheques.

On top of these myriad obstacles, many workers are no longer able to rely on the COVID income supports that kept many of them afloat for the first year-and-a-half of the pandemic.

The effects have rattled down to kitchen tables with alarming speed. In a recent countrywide poll, nearly 60 per cent of respondents—including half of 18-24 year-olds—told the Angus Reid Institute that they’re having trouble feeding their families. That’s an increase from 36 per cent when the question was last asked in 2019.