Canada’s Employers Cut Record 129,000 Jobs in January

According to Bloomberg: “Canada lost a record number of jobs in January, pushing the unemployment rate to a four-year high of 7.2 percent, as companies struggle to cope with the country’s first recession since 1992.

Employers cut a net 129,000 workers, three times the loss forecast by economists, after a drop of 20,400 in December, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. It was the largest drop since the methodology for the survey was changed in 1976.”

Canada sees big job losses.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty warned on Friday of significant Canadian job losses in 2009 and said he was not ruling anything out as he prepares a stimulus package for a budget that he said would run a large deficit.

“We’re in for a very difficult year,” the Conservative government minister said. “We are going to have substantial job losses. We need to respond to the needs of people who will lose their jobs this year.”

Source: Reuters