Unemployment doubled while tens of thousands of Manitobans lost their jobs in the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest numbers from Statistics Canada show.
Manitoba’s unemployment rate rose from 5.2 per cent in February to 6.4 per cent in March. In April it rose further to 11.4 per cent, according to Statistics Canada figures released Friday.
That equates to about 37,000 more unemployed people in a two-month span that saw public health orders shutter much of the economy.
It’s a stark number, a University of Manitoba economist said. “I can’t say I was surprised but it’s a pretty bleak picture,” Fletcher Baragar said. “What’s just so striking is… to really see on the chart the hard reality of the numbers, just how precipitous