Canada shed nearly two million jobs in April, as the novel coronavirus pandemic tore through the Canadian economy. That, on top of an employment drop of over one million in March, brings the total job losses since the start of the COVID-19 shutdown to over three million, Statistics Canada said on Friday.
The agency said the unemployment rate soared to 13 per cent as the full force of the pandemic hit compared with 7.8 per cent in March.
It was the second-highest unemployment rate on record. Economists on average had expected a loss of four million jobs and an unemployment rate of 18 per cent, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.