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

By Theophilos Argitis

 

Feb. 6 (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.

 

Today’s job losses may undermine the Bank of Canada’s forecast that the economy will recover more quickly than in previous recessions as credit markets and exports rebound.